Billy Chia

I’m not very good at having a mystic faith. For me God is very tangible and and even pragmatic. God is the realest reality and His way makes the most sense. All other paths are comparatively foolish. I hate when people say mystical things like, “It was a God moment!” As though every other moment of the day isn’t a “God moment?”

Tonight I was challenged to be a little more mystical in my belief. God spoke to me in one of these “moments” and it was a bit unsettling.

A Step of Faith

Today when I came home after my lunch shift I made a purchase online. It cost a substantial amount of money. Much more than Sarah and I can afford. I know it’s terrible stewardship to spend money you don’t have but I just believed it was the right thing to do. I drove back to work for my dinner shift with my heart sagging more than usual under the weight of how little money I earn and how poorly I provide for my family.

I arrived at work to find that I was slotted to serve a private party in our banquet room for 50 people. Normally parties of this size utilize 3 servers but tonight it was only Patty and myself. We worked like dogs. By the end of the night my uniform has so much food on it I looked like Mike Lewis.

3 reasons I love working banquets:

1. I do my best work at banquets. I often screw up at work becuase of the stress of trying to earn a tip. Sometimes getting one really bad tip is like a really bad poker bust. You start serving “on tilt” and make less money on subsequent tables as a result. Banquets on the other hand are given an automatic gratuity. Knowing that the reward is already given to me ahead of time and that I don’t have to earn it frees me to simply focus on offering the best service. (How’s that for analogy of faith?)
2. I get to take home free desert. Who can eat cheesecake and tiramisu after shoveling down 3 previous courses of Biaggi’s deliciousness? There’s always a few extras for the servers.
3. I make more money. The auto-grat for private parties at Biaggi’s is 20.5%. After tipping out to the bartender and event coordinator, all of the servers who work the party get to split 17.5% of the pre-tax sales. For large parties this is still more money that you would make waiting tables on the floor.

The Voice of Hashem

Tonight I made a substantial amount of money. It wasn’t the most I’ve ever made in a single shift but it was more than I’ve made in 2 months and almost 3x what I’ve been earning on average.

Coincidentally, I took home exactly the amount of money I spent online today.

Billy, trust me. I will provide for you. btw just doing this to show you how much I sanction the purchase you made today.

-God

Did you hear that?