The Unpayable Tab

In 2019, a diner in New Hampshire called Joey's Pancake House started something unexpected. A regular customer left forty dollars on the counter and told the waitress, "Pay for whoever comes in next." That next person, moved by the gesture, did the same. The chain continued for eleven straight days — strangers covering meals for people they would never meet.

But here is what made it remarkable. On day three, a man walked in who had just lost his job at the paper mill. He sat down, ordered coffee and toast because that was all he could afford, and the waitress told him his meal was already paid for. He broke down crying. He had not earned it. He had not even known to ask for it. Someone else's generosity met him right where he was.

Paul tells us Abraham understood this. He did not stand before God with a resume of good deeds, tallying up what he was owed. Instead, Abraham trusted the One who justifies the ungodly, and God credited that trust as righteousness. The promise was not a paycheck for hours worked. It was a gift received with open hands.

This is the gospel in its simplest form. We walk into the restaurant broke, and the tab is already covered. Not because we charmed the waitress or swept the floors, but because Someone ahead of us — the God who gives life to the dead and calls into being things that were not — already settled the account. Faith is simply sitting down and receiving.