You may not know this, but ChickFilA is one of the cleanest restaurants ever.  Period.  No straying from that, just spotless.  And that is one thing I love about it..I can always assure our customers they are getting the freshest food cooked on the cleanest equipment and put in the most sterile bags and packages…no matter the cost to ChickFilA.  It’s amazing.

So it was no surprise to me today when a tiny speck appeared to be found in the drive through bin, that the entire drive through ice bin was subsequently emptied out, cleaned, and reloaded..as already stated, we don’t take any chances! The amazing thing about this was that it was in the MIDDLE of our morning rush!!  We had a bumper to bumper line wrapped around the building, and yet no one hesitated to clean it out!  Ice was brought out in other containers, drinks were filled, and there was no slow down, all while cleaning was going on..because it was THAT important!  One customer at the window was very impressed when she asked what was going on, and I told her!

As I was working around this, God just kept hammering a point home with me, and it was this:  If it’s that important to serve the purest PHYSICAL food, and it brings me so much joy to represent that, and it honors the name of ChickFilA when it is like that….then what about the spiritual food that I share with the world???

In other words, does my representation of living out God’s Word in this world look pure and clean?  Does it make it attractive and appealing?  Can I assure people that although I will always be flawed, I am living the best life of holiness and cleanliness that I can?  And when GOD points out a speck of impurity, sin, unrighteousness, do I stop immediately and allow Him to thoroughly clean while I continue to serve??  Or do I brush it off and say ” a little dirty ice (sin) is no big deal, and it can be cleaned later”? After all, perfection is not possible until we reach heaven, and everyone should know and accept that in me…is that our attitude?

If you get a drink with dirty ice in it anywhere, I am sure it leads to questions..where did it come from?  Do they know?  Is there more?  What else is dirty??  And those are valid questions.  The same is true about our spiritual lives.  Again…we will never be perfect..there will be some “dirty ice”.  But our response to that and our renewed efforts to keep it out will be a vital witness to the world that we CARE about our spiritual image, and that we love Jesus enough to allow Him to lean us, so that we can represent HIM with honor! Next time you order a drink anywhere, let that remind you!

Yep, twenty thousand seventy five days, to be exact! Or put another way, 481,800 hours, or really mind blowing, 28,908,000 minutes!

What am I talking about? I am talking about the fact that 2 days from today, I will be 55 years old..which is another way of saying the facts above! In other words, I have already occupied this world for a big chunk of time! And as I have contemplated these numbers, the Lord has given me a new perspective of time altogether..not just for me, but for all of us! In fact, the day any of us were born (in the US) in any year, there were 859,178 OTHER people also born! If you put that in the perspective of God’s amazing work in forming each one of us uniquely and intimately in our mother’s bodies, it paints an astounding picture of God’s creative ability, and His sovereignty in deciding when and how we come into this world.

What a challenging thought! I wondered when I read that statistic how many of those 850,000+ people are still alive…and how many of them spent or are spending their lives in love with the Lord and serving Him. I also wondered what kind of impact my “group” has had on the world. Are we mostly ordinary people living life and influencing a small-medium group of people? Is there a large group who have been particularly smart that have changed history? How many of “us” are in jail? Or drug addicts? Or missionaries?? It’s a staggering trail that could cause you to wander off into great research and effort if you really had to know those answers!

But, of course, God quickly took those thoughts right down to where they needed to be, and quietly kept prodding me to answer that purpose question for just ONE of those people…me. Spiritual growth is NOT easy, and if we are continually seeking it, God is ALWAYS willing to guide us to the truth about our own lives. And here’s what He showed me..that it’s not really about the quantity, or an accounting of what I’ve done for every hour or minute that He’s given me…it’s about paying attention and being aware! It’s about realizing that I HAVE been blessed with all these years, and hopefully I have spent my time mostly wisely and have been faithful to His call for me to work for Him as often as He needed me to. But it’s ALSO about realizing that if He grants me even one day more, there is still that need, in this dark and lost world of ours, for me to be even MORE aware and more faithful! His work on earth is not done, because He has not sent His son to take us home. And because of that, we ALL need to be watching those minutes, those hours, and those days, and making sure that His Kingdom is not lacking for workers, that it is increasing in number, and that our “group” of birthday people has at least ONE faithful representative!

Here’s to my 481,801st day, and to God be the glory!

Throughout my years of church life, many slogans and catchy phrases about Jesus, the church, and ministry have come and gone. Some had an impact, some not so much…and most of them have faded into the background. But as I watched the news the other day, an old one came to my mind: “Jesus is THE answer”. The stories that morning were full of sad stories, lives taken, drugs used..and it seemed there was an air of resignation even on the part of the reporters that, yep, this is our world and there’s no hope. And I thought to myself, is anybody even asking for an answer anymore? Does it matter that we, as born again believers and followers of Jesus Christ, have the answer? Or has everyone given up?

I literally see hundreds of people a week at the drive through, and I see people with just about every emotion and every circumstance. And in talking with them, it’s about 50-50 any given day as to how many of them are defeated, or depressed, or just lost in this world. They have accepted their lives, their jobs, and their world as never able to change, and they plod through as best they can.

AND YET!! This is NOT the way God planned it. His goal for every person is for them to come to know Him, love Him, and live their lives for His purpose and His glory! For those who do know Him, it’s for them to live lives of joy, peace, and fulfillment as they minister in His name throughout their days. So what’s the problem?

I believe it’s this…that there is another group of people not asking questions anymore..and that’s us..the true family of God who are supposed to be representing Jesus to the world!! Not only have so many unbelievers given up, but I am thinking that a lot of BELIEVERS have too. Sometimes we go through OUR days with that same spirit of resignation that the world does. We seem to have lost our belief in the power of God to change lives, and we may have even begun to believe that a lot of people have already “blown it” and are beyond redemption already!

So where do we begin to correct this? I think we need to seek the Lord and ask Him to renew our own faith and purpose, and when He does we need to get to work!! There are still a LOT of work to be done, people to reach, and others to encourage! We DO have the answer, and we need to start asking people if THEY do!

Although I love my job and especially my customers, there are times that it literally stinks.  As in, NOT the aroma of fresh wonderfully cooked chicken, but ODOR.  What kind?  Well if you don’t know, money stinks..mot having it, mind you, but handling it!  It is always dirty, and a lot if times if you sniffed it you would be horrified.  And I will spare you details but where some women keep their money….!!  And them there’s also those lovely exhaust fumes because we are agriculture country and have NO emissions testing…I could barely serve a customer the other day through his truck’s exhaust clouds!  And of course in the 1,000 degree summers we have here, anyone who works hard just..sorry…usually smells midday!

So as one of our pastors was preaching last Sunday about the healing of the ten lepers, and the stench of rotting flesh that lepers give off, I could slightly relate.  And he shared the story of one missionary in Africa who desperately wanted to evangelize in a leper colony, but it took her three different tries before she could overcome the odor!  

And then our pastor transitioned into this thought..when Jesus left the splendor of Heaven..where all was pure and lovely in the very presence of God Himself, what kind of odor did our world give off??  This dirty, nasty, ugly world..compared to what He left.  As I have meditated on that thought this week, God has led me to another aspect all together.

As I work, I ger paid for what I do..and that is a great motivation to go in every day!  AND, I “get paid” in the rich relationships I have formed with so many of my regulars.  AND I am performing a service that most of them want, so it’s all good most days. Now contrast that with what Jesus encountered here!  Not only did this world stink, but no one paid Him, the world hated Him, and even His own disciples didn’t understand Him!  

But the worst smell of all?  The odor of SIN.  In all His life to that point, Jesus had never been face to face, elbow to elbow with SIN..and it had to have been a shock to experience that.  The sights, the sounds, and the attitudes of unredeemed mankind surrounded Him….

AND YET! The beauty of Christmas is that He came…volunteered..was willing to endure the stench..not so He could give us a warm fuzzy holiday in December each year, but so He could live and DIE for us to save us!  That is worthy of praise!  Because after all, the most I ever have to do is wash my hands or grab the hand sanitizer or sniff a lemon..and the odors I encounter are gone.  And I go home and don’t have to deal with them till the next day.  Jesus didn’t have that option…it just got smellier and smellier for Him as He ministered..and He had to die and resurrect to permanently remove that odor from those of us who believe in Him!

So now when I encounter “smells” at work, it’s just another reminder of all that Jesus has done for me..and how there are still those He wants to wash clean!