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!