I was so impressed by the service I received today at Discount Tire here in Austin, TX. Let me begin by saying I hate car repair. It is something I cannot do myself, and moreover I barely even understand what other people are doing when they help me. As a result I often struggle with trusting the people who are helping me fix my car in time of need.
That is one reason today was so refreshing. Last weekend we had the wonderful experience of getting a flat tire while in the "fast lane" on Hwy 183. At first my wife pulled off to the side of the road... the left side.
It only took me a few seconds to realize that attempting to change a tire with my back sticking out into the highway was not a great idea. I do know that much about car repair.
Next we got to go from zero to 60 and cross three lanes of traffic to get to the other median... that was fun! Oh, and my two kids were in the backseat this whole time, thankfully oblivious to the true nature of what was going on and the fact that an unobservant driver could smash into the back of us at any time.
I did manage to get the tire changed without any serious bodily injury. I say serious because there was some minor injury when I attempted to lift the car so that my wife could place the jack onto the prescribed spot on the car's frame... but that is another story.
In light of our recent experience I figured it was not a good idea to leave the tire flat, so I set off to get it fixed. I saw a large hole in the tread and figured that was a good thing; at least it was not in the sidewall. After doing a bit of research I set off for Discount Tire to get a quick tire fix.
As I pulled into the store this morning the first thing I noticed was that they were slammed. The parking lot was packed and there were sales people and customers everywhere, even in the parking lot.
The next thing I noticed was David walking over to me to see if he could help. With a handshake he asked my name and offered to assist. I showed him the tire and he lifted it out of my trunk and said he would fix it if he could... for Free. Sadly that was not to be for this tire. Apparently driving at 60 across three lanes of traffic on a flat tire does bad things to it, and there were many more splits than I had seen; this tire was dead.
You might be thinking, "Of course David was helpful; he wanted to sell you something." I agree that David's vision includes selling tires. But, the fact is he was willing to serve me today for no charge at all, not knowing if I would join in with his vision in the future or not.
During our time together he was able to tell me more about his vision of tires, how he wanted to offer the best tire at the best price with the best service. He told me that if this had been one of his tires that he would have replaced it for $15 instead of the $150 I was about to pay. I won't say I was happy to buy a new tire today, but I did not feel like I was getting robbed and tossed, bleeding, onto the side of the highway either.
I walked out today thinking of how it would be to have guys like David permeating the culture of our church. What would it be like if we freely served the world, and un-apologetically shared God's vision with them during the process; not ashamed to tell them of the cost because we are so convinced that the reward is greater by far.
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