Perspective

The slips of paper tacked above the table are food orders.

Food orders for a chef.

Food orders for Kidlet Two.

There was a night recently in which he was the only chef on duty at the hotel where he works.   The restaurant, room service and an employee lounge with food were all his to maintain.

Eighty food orders are represented in those tickets. 

In a two-hour time frame, there were 80 hungry people looking for their food.

There was no other help in the kitchen on that shift.

In fact there was no one to deliver the food for room service.

Chaos, pure chaos, is how Kidlet Two later described the experience.

The hotel manager and the front desk person had to deliver the room service orders.  There was no other staff to help out.

At the end of the evening, the hotel manager came to the kitchen and congratulated Kidlet Two for keeping his cool and for doing a great job despite the circumstances.

I was texting Kidlet Two during the evening.  He wasn't answering me.  The night before he had been texting me about the nummy food he'd made.  But on this evening he was strangely quiet.

Ha!  About 10:30 pm he sent me the picture above with the words,

I've been a little busy...

Staring at the picture on my phone I almost started to hyperventilate as I thought about what Kidlet Two was dealing with.

What would I do if I had 80 people waiting on me? 

There are days at my work that I feel really swamped with work and pressured with deadlines.  But none of those deadlines affect 80 hungry people. 

I've printed a copy of the picture and have it tacked on my cloth-covered cubicle walls at work. 

There are times I need a new perspective and a reality check.

When I feel pressured, I look at that picture and realize how good I have it at my job.  I wouldn't do well with the demands that Kidlet Two has.

He and I have talked several times since that evening about perspective and I've thanked him for being such a dedicated worker.  His boss doesn't really acknowledge the work he does.

But God sees what He does. 

I reminded Kidlet Two of these verses from Colossians 3:23-25 from The Message Bible:

Servants, do what you’re told by your earthly masters. And don’t just do the minimum that will get you by. Do your best. Work from the heart for your real Master, for God, confident that you’ll get paid in full when you come into your inheritance. Keep in mind always that the ultimate Master you’re serving is Christ. The sullen servant who does shoddy work will be held responsible. Being a follower of Jesus doesn’t cover up bad work.

Perspective is an amazing thing.  I'm sorry Kidlet Two had to have such a chaotic night.  But I'm thankful for the lesson in perspective that I learned from his experience.

How is your perspective these days?