How can she hate a Cracker Barrel ornament?
Maybe she has something against people whose business is pleasing people.
Maybe she thinks Obamacare is awesome.
I don't know.
Okay, so I do know why.
It goes against our Christmas tree theme.
But every year I go all anti-Grinch and sneak it onto our Christmas tree. It has been there for a week, but shhh she doesn't know.
I won the ornament eight years ago at a Cracker Barrel staff Christmas party.
I waited tables for three years and my time there left a mark on me. Some good and some bad.
While going all Kevin McCallister sneaking this ornament onto the tree, I was hit with a memory.
If you've ever worked at a restaurant, there's one number you hate.
You despise it so much that when you are counting you skip it.
If it meant your favorite basketball team finishing with this number for a win, you would rather them lose.
It's probably how many warts Satan has.
This number means you're going to have to disappoint someone. It might mean a lower tip.
The number…86.
The number 86 followed by a food item means you are all out of it. The number comes with a yell and is posted everywhere for you to see.
One Saturday morning I had to open the restaurant and before we served our first guest we were 86 something.
Something everyone knows about Cracker Barrel is the killer breakfast served all day long.
My father-in-law loves breakfast at Cracker Barrel. Only he doesn't eat just breakfast. He orders "BROCKFAST". He changes the pronunciation of the word. It is said with a determination that makes you think of John Wayne. When he says it you feel as if he is going to kill the hog himself with bare hands (which he could do). He loves a good hearty breakfast. A breakfast that only his wife, Waffle House, Cracker Barrel, and few other places can deliver.
Breakfast is a big deal at Cracker Barrel.
So imagine our dismay when on the busiest day before we served our first guest we were…
EIGHTY-SIX EGGS!
Do you know how embarrassing it is to work at Cracker Barrel and have to walk up to a table at 6:00 in the morning and tell them they can't have eggs? Probably not! You feel plain dumb.
The situation was killing our tips. The servers were offering to go to the store and buy the eggs ourselves. However, management wouldn't let us because it was against policy.
It was a rough morning.
It's difficult to please people for breakfast when they can't have their eggs. It was somewhere around that time I realized that 86 was a cursed number.
However, I wonder how many outsiders look at churches and think we are 86 Christians.
Actually, the word "Christian" has so much negativity attached to it that they think we are 86 love, 86 truth, 86 goodness, and 86 kindness. They see everyone of us as hypocrites.
Some have been hurt by us.
They have seen us act ungodly.
They don't understand that Christian isn't Greek for "perfect".
Some have seen us act unloving, unkind, and not living out what we believe.
They've seen how we treat our spouses and act towards others.
They've seen us promote and fight about everything except for Christ.
They perceive that we are no different than everyone else.
Some have seen us at our worst and that's why they think we are 86 Christians.
Others have assumed the worst about us and so they assume we are 86 Christians.
They have no clue that not everyone in every church acts that way. That every church has people who genuinely love Jesus Christ, follow his teachings, and want to love others.
We can't control what people assume about us. We shouldn't try to please everyone.
But we can love others. We can love Jesus and try to live out his teachings.
People will always make assumptions, but let's do our best not to give them reasons to believe we are 86 Christians.
Is there a Christmas ornament that is hated and loved at your house?
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