ihop part 1 - college station

well, at the request of wesley dorsett (fightin' texas aggie class of 2007?...whoooop. ha.) i will attempt to lay out my love for ihop in a way that is adequately expressed, but doesn't reveal too much of my lunacy. i began my love relationship with ihop (international house of pancakes) in college, and here ill lay out part one of my three part series.

IHOP OF COLLEGE STATION (pictured above)
now, in college, ihop was located at s. college and university, a prime spot for the folks who had a rough night at the bar and were attempting to knock the edge off, but it was also a short drive from my house, and a perfect walking distance from campus. silvia was the token waitress that soon became my friend. there were many nights of cheese sticks, samplers, dr. peppers, pancakes, even a cheeseburger or two, but mainly i stuck with coffee and water. coffee was the expected order when i sat down and was often brought without question. mikey and i handled more cheese sticks than was appropriate. sometimes silvia would tell the cooks that they burnt the sticks and bring us out two orders!!! holy crap. after a while there becomes this kind of connection that is founded on the people not the location or building. when silvia wasn't there, it wasn't quite home for me. i will interject there were several other waiters/waitresses at the college station ihop that made me smile, but none like my girl silvia.

but, before i dive into my friendship with silvia, can i pause and hop on a soap box? i want to say first that i am talking at myself as much as you! i am in no way close to perfection in this area, but i do think it's important and often over-looked. do you know which day of the week servers, across the board, hate working? sundays! why? because "all the church people come." i believe that to be an accurate paraphrase of a conversation that i had with some coworkers at saltgrass steakhouse, back in the day. may i just say, i think that is piss poor. my point is this...we shouldn't be perplexed when: our formulas for bringing people to christ don't work or when we find that our churches are stagnant or when we see a rise in mysticism or buddhism or islam. could it be that christianity suffers, because the "followers" of christ have a reputation that is nothing like the reputation of christ. when the server spills the drink we should pick it up, when the wait for a table is really long we should be the ones who wait with no complaining or rude comments, when the server screws up the order we should be the ones who affirm them with, "hey it's no big deal, you're doing fine." we can't expect great results from a faith that isn't exercised in the small ways and big ways alike. christians ought to be known for their kindness and generosity, not their rudeness and frugality.

back to silvia. she was great. by the end of our time together i knew so much about her, and vice versa. she would tell me things i didn't need to know and things that i did. she would tell me my outfit didn't match and which of my girl friends she thought i should date. she would go on and on about her kids and her grandkids. she carried pictures of them in her serving pad, and she would show the new ones to me every so often. silvia brought a lot of joy to my late night study sessions, not because of the free coffee and cheese sticks, but because i got to know a person and she got to know me. silvia's friendship changed my approach to how i treat people i don't know. when you take away the veil of, "hey take my order and get out of my way," a whole new world can open up. when we take the time to ask questions, be interested, and be known, we learn a lot about people, we learn a lot about ourselves, and more importantly we learn a lot about the heart of God. when we take the time to know people who don't even expect to be addressed with interest, we find out that everything is not about us. i think that being kind, open, and loving to people who don't expect you to be can be a step toward becoming like jesus; being jesus to your waiter is just one easy way that i think we neglect. it's funny that Jesus, while being God in the flesh didn't think equality with God something to be grasped, but considered himself nothing...it sucks that i often do.