Are You Passionate About Chicken?

When I was at a grand opening for a Chick-fil-A in Denver a few years back I met a guy who was an owner/operator at one time but had left the company. At the time I thought that he was nuts because he had been where I was trying so hard to get and had walked away. I asked him why he had left and he said that he was just not that passionate about chicken. He said that he loved all that CFA stood for and loved the atmosphere of the company and the pride that he felt when he told people what he did, but he wasn't passionate about chicken.  He wasn't passionate about rolling up his sleeves, getting coater all over him and making an awesome fried chicken breast.

When he shared that with me it really made me stop and think and has turned into a question that I ask myself whenever I need a gut check in life now. The question, "Are you passionate about chicken?" has come to mean a lot of things to me. It means am I willing to do the little things with my kids? To unload the dishwasher for my wife after a long day? To follow Jesus into places that I don't want to go?  It is easy to be passionate about the things in life that come easy or are not messy or you know are not going to ask too much of you. It is harder to be passionate about chicken. Making chicken is messy, greasy, hot and when you have been breading chicken in the kitchen there is no mistaking it. The rest of the team knows it because you are covered in coater, your sleeves are usually rolled up, you are probably sweating and you most likely have a few good grease spots on your shirt and pants.

There are so many days when I come home and I don't always feel like throwing the ball, doing homework, tackling a "honey do list" or going to set up for church but that is what I signed up for when I said, "I do", when I took that boy from the doctor and held him for the first time and when I told the one who made me that I was giving my life back to him. So Lord, help me to be passionate about chicken! Blessings..