As I poured over my Facebook newsfeed this morning I saw a number of pictures featuring the opening of a new Chick-fil-A restaurant in my town.
Let’s be honest here. I’M EXCITED!
However, the focus of each picture wasn’t on Chick-fil-A itself but on the multitude of tents that covered the parking lot. These tents housed eager chicken consumers ready to accept a ticket that entered them into a drawing for one free chicken meal over the next year. Impressive!
But seeing these struck a bit of a chord. A flat one, at that.
I’ll be the first to admit that we all have our thing in life. I’m not pointing the fingers at these ardent chicken lovers – good chicken, I might add – just using this as a platform to point us to somewhat of a grim reality.
We humans camp out over the silliest things. And before you start shaking your head let me just say that Yes. We. Do.
Every last one of us.
Oh, I know there’s a very good chance that some deeply moving story could surface about this entire experience. Perhaps a man who had never accepted Christ was freezing his tail-end off next to a man (also freezing his tail-end off) who gladly shared an extra pair of gloves as well as an astonishing testimony that, hours later, lead that first man to Christ.
It could happen. God works all things together for good, remember? Even in these situations.
My wandering mind is leading me to digress.
What I’m hoping to nail home here is about the energy we spend doing the things we do. There’s really nothing wrong with camping out for free chicken.
But what if we spent more of that energy being camped out at the foot of the cross, instead? Don’t get me wrong, I know we can’t stay there all the time. After all, we’re to go and make disciples so the thought of camping anywhere just doesn’t line up with the command of “go…”
However, what if we approached the cross with as much enthusiasm as those determined chicken eaters? What if we were ready to brave the storm (or in this case, the cold temperatures) to grab hold of something truly worth having? Something that would keep us from never growing hungry…
It’s just a small thought I leave you with today.
Or is it?
We want each of you to show this same diligence to the very end, so that what you hope for may be fully realized. (Hebrews 6:11)
