Honesty is a Secret Sauce - Monthly Motivator #1

Honesty is a secret sauce in our society. Someone doing what is right when no one is watching is big news. In case you doubt that, I have a tale from the world of poultry, and it’s no canard. 

Actually, it’s a story that takes place in one of the kingdoms of secret sauce. Chick-fil-A.

I love Chick-fil-A’s original dipping sauce. Yes, I’m one of those people who would buy it at the grocery story. But, don’t worry. As much as I probably could fill an entire blog post with a reflection about this signature classic, I’m not going to now.

Someday, maybe.

What I will write about in this post is my appreciation for a Chick-fil-A employee who did something that takes our breath away. He found and returned almost $10,000. Cash. Even after he found it in a place where no one would have been the wiser if he had pocketed it. 

Why not just take it? 

“Because that’s not what Jesus would have done,” he said.

Seeking Good Motivators

Before I dive into this story, you might notice that the title of this article says “monthly motivator #1.” That’s because I’m planning an experiment. Now through September, I intend to find and focus on good news at least once a month in this blog. Hopefully, I can keep it going beyond that, but this sounds like an achievable goal. And I like achieving goals.

What is the point of this experiment? Well, I don’t know about you, but the news usually gets me down. The headlines I see in “the papers” or in my online feeds too often stir up anger, anxiety, or even anguish. It seems like many of the major media outlets and the big tech big boys relish shocking us into the next click.

Now, I know we can’t have our heads in the sand. Our world IS plagued by real tragedies, real distress, and real evil. 

But…

But that is not “all the news that’s fit to print.” There is good news. In fact, I suspect there is more good news than bad. We’re just routinely fed a festering feast of fright and filth because… well, conventional wisdom says that is what sells. 

I suppose most of the evidence probably points to that verdict. Joseph Pulitzer and William Randolph Hearst were smart guys, as are our modern day media magnates. Pushing the envelope further, the street-smart Newsies worked to “improve” on those headlines even more in order to sell more “papes.” Maybe a little too much like today’s algorithmic aggregators?

I love the Newsies film, by the way. Put down those stones, Brooklyn.

My point is that we consume a lot of stories that make us feel hurt and helpless, and all that bad news is wearing on us. We end up with a bad motivator like this poor Star Wars droid. The pressure builds and builds until we burst or break down.

I contend we need to find more good news. The good motivators. So I’m going to try do my part and see what happens. 

A Surprising Sauce

Speaking of good news, I wish I could high-five Jaydon Cintron. 

Jaydon was just doing his job one Friday at a Chick-fil-A in Kinston, North Carolina. Faithfully carrying out his shift responsibilities, he was attending to the bathrooms. But this time he happened upon two envelopes full of cash. One had $5,000 inside, and the other had $4,333. 

This young man had a decision to make. And, as this news report puts it, “his character was tested and he passed with flying colors.” 

 

Now, last time I checked, there are no cameras in the bathroom. So Jaydon could have easily thought he just got blessed with a well-deserved bonus. That doesn’t seem like too far fetched of a self-justification, does it? In fact, I think that is what many people would expect. Honesty is a sauce in short supply in our society, after all. 

I'm reminded of a bit by comedian Nate Bargatze in his Hello, World! album. Growing up under Christian parents in the ’80’s and ’90’s—when they were the “most Christian”—left him pretty naive, he said. For example, one day he found a twenty dollar bill on the ground at Walmart and decided to turned it in. 

“I asked this guy if he dropped it,” quipped Bargatze, “and he said he did.”

It’s hilarious joke because we know that the young Bargatze got played for a fool. We can just imagine that worker. He might have a nameless (or not so nameless) face of someone we suspect we were once duped by. As the trusting kid walks away, he probably rubs the bill with greedy fingers, dons a sly smile, and mutters, “A sucker is born every minute.”

And we don’t want to be the suckers. Am I right? We assume dishonesty is par for the course in our society, and we don’t want to be conned. We want to eat, not be eaten, out there in the jungle.

Might just as well take that $20 and move on, right?

A Man of Character

Thankfully, that’s not what Jaydon thought. Holding those envelopes of cash in his hands, he didn’t cave to “conventional wisdom.” Jaydon didn’t go for the quick score. He went to his faith. He went to his heart. And he prioritized someone else. His thoughts went out to the person who had lost that money. 

So Jaydon did the honest thing. He turned the envelopes over to restaurant’s managers, and they found the customer who had lost it.

“Money is useless without character,” the young Chick-fil-A worker told the reporters covering the story.

Now, it was Good Friday when this all happened. But I suspect Jaydon would have done the right thing regardless of the day. He chose honesty because, at his core, he is an individual of integrity. A man of character. And his thoughts centered not on himself, but on the God he served and the neighbors who would be affected by his decision.

The fact that we are so surprised and impressed by this moment of honesty is telling. We need good news about honesty, generosity, kindness, and compassion.  We need them in in our feeds and in our "papes." And we need to thank those like Jaydon, who quietly do the right thing in the everyday moments of life. 

We need more of that secret sauce in our society.

Photo by Giorgio Trovato on Unsplash