Jesus, Wisdom, and a $2 tip.

Why I think Christians should wake up in this this "snowflake" culture.

Personally, I hate the term "snowflake". If you've been connected to social media and seen anything concerning politics or gun control, or really anything even remotely political, inevitably you've seen someone referred to as a "snowflake." This is the most common insult for someone who gets offended “too easily,” in the other person’s opinion. Granted, there is some truth to be held in the fact that we could all have a little thicker skin, but there might be something to be learned from all of this and our hyper offended culture in America right now. But, before that, I want to share a short story of what happened to me the other night at the bar.

The other night (which in Adam lingo can literally mean anywhere from last night to a year ago) I had a group of students from a local Christian institution come in to the sports bar and eat. Now, to preface this, I've heard and read about how terrible Christians are at tipping their waiters/waitresses and it makes me despondent. Some of my fellow waiters at the bar have told me, "if you see a table pray, kiss a good tip goodbye." This bothers me so much for two reasons. First and foremost, this isn't what Christians should be identified as. Psalms 37:25 and 26 show pretty clearly that righteous people are always generous. We're all people, we're all sinners, and generosity does not come naturally to any of us, but as a group, Christians ought to be known for being generous. The second reason this bothers me relates to the idea of snowflakes.

But first, back to this group of students. I finally, as a waiter, had the chance to see for myself how Christians would tip. Or at least, people who are connected to a Christian organization. I'm not sure if this group of students claim to be Christ followers or not, but I do know that they represent Christians in the fact that they are connected to a Christian institution. They were great fun to wait on; and long story short, they were terrible tippers. That, combined with the fact that one of them walked out without covering their check, I ended up making two dollars on a table of nine people. It was a bit of a night ruiner. Not because of $2. I could not care less about the money. I was disappointed because, for the very first time in my life, I forced a small group of Christians to represent the majority to me. I never let the students know this, but in my mind, they were going to be the embodiment of Christianity as a whole. This alone is something that so many of us need to move past. We should not allow for a small group of people to represent the majority, for better or worse.

But, it's the reality. People will force a fraction of a group to represent the majority and will base very concrete opinions off of those representations. So, how do we tie all of this to snowflakes? Right now we live in a culture that is hypersensitive and easily offended that it has become a common joke. "I'm offended that you're offended." To say the least, it has caused a lot of people to realize what could possibly be offensive, even if it is a little absurd.

Something that I have heard recently from Greg Atkinson, a well-known leadership author, is that the gospel is extremely offensive. If we want someone to be able to get to the gospel, we should do everything we can to make sure there are no roadblocks along the way. There can’t be anything offensive on the way to the gospel, because it is offensive enough on its own. If you think of the core of the gospel message of Jesus Christ, it is nothing but offensive. The most basic thought of the gospel is that you are so messed up and so broken that God knew you couldn't even get religion right. So, he had to come to you.

That's incredibly offensive. Not to mention, it’s bold. It's the total opposite of the American dream. Where we want to hear, "You can do whatever you want if you want it badly enough," God says, "There's no way you can do this."

With Christians spreading a message this offensive, we should be doing everything we can to ensure that the gospel is the only offensive thing we offer. If we have the guts to preach such a shocking message, the road paved to the gospel should be set in gold and smiling faces. In the culture that we live in, we should already be pretty aware of what could offend people. Especially considering that we will often mock it. I want to live my life in such a way that the only offensive things I say or do are rooted in the words of Jesus.

#culture #Christianity