The Kingdom of God is like a Hotel Manager

When we checked into our holiday hotel room last week I asked if it was on a pet-free floor—Edward is a bit nervous around dogs and I'm a bit allergic. Sure enough, we needed to be relocated to the pet-free 5th floor. All was good, until we started seeing dogs on that floor the following day! When I asked the front desk what was up, and was told that there really are no pet-free floors, I asked for the manager.

This is not a new thing for me, asking for the manager. But this time things played out differently. Instead getting upset I calmly explained our concern; expressing frustration without getting angry. I told the manager that while I understood the hotel's policy of not turning customers away when pet floors are full, I also felt it wasn't right to give us the impression we were on a pet-free floor. Our conversation was very civil and I was ready to leave it at that... but then he said he'd like to 'comp' our stay—our whole stay! I couldn't believe it. He said that, unlike other customers who are very difficult, I was very reasonable.

Now you need to understand how shocking those words were to me. Far too many times I have been the unreasonable customer—like a dog on a bone insisting things be made right. But this time—because I've kind of changed over this past year, and have really tried to let go of being over-controlling—I chose to act differently, and, perhaps not-so-surprisingly, I got a better result.

Only the following day, as I was really enjoying the pool with Edward, I started to feel bad. This is a really nice hotel I thought, and I didn't feel right not paying anything for our stay. I didn't want to steal from the hotel chain. So, on the way back to our room I stopped by the front desk and told them I'd like to pay half. It was then I learned that the manager had only comp'd us two of our three nights (thinking that was the scope of our stay.) Still I insisted she re-work the bill so that we'd pay exactly half.

Ten minutes later there was a knock on our hotel room door. It was the manager insisting that he wanted to cover all three nights of our stay. He said that while he was willing to let me pay half (if I insisted), he really wanted to make things right. I told him that I didn't want to steal from the hotel and wanted to pay my fair share. So there we were, at a stand off, both arguing the case for the other. At one point in the conversation I laughed and said, "This is the way the world should be, what living in community should be like!"

I told him I'd think about his offer.

Then next day we decided to accept his gift. The whole drive home I kept thinking about his words about me being such a reasonable customer. I'd never heard words like these before. I felt like Jean Valjean in Les Mis being told by the priest that he had a soul. I cannot tell you how redemptive it was. So much grace in this man's words and actions. It made me think that the Kingdom of God is very much like a gracious hotel manager!