Have you ever found yourself waiting in line to purchase food when a new revelation hits you?
I experienced that very thing in the midst of Chick-fil-a’s annual Cow Appreciation Day last month dressed as a cow. A revelation about what’s normal in our Christian lives completely consumed my mind to the point where I stood contemplating it as the always-it’s-my-pleasure Chick-fil-a employee beckoned me to her register in the all the chaos of free food.
Let me set the stage for you: Georgians adore Chick-fil-a. It’s one of the biggest prides and joys of the Peach State. It’s typically my go-to restaurant of choice whenever I need a quick dinner plan (except on a Sunday). They recently moved the Gainesville location to the main stretch of highway where I live … Need I say more?
So Chick-fil-a is a favorite spot of mine regardless of having to pay $6.20 on a regular basis for the always delicious Chick-fil-a sandwich complete with a coke and waffle fries dunked in the restaurant’s sauce. But Cow Appreciation Day is the one day during the year when you get yourself a free meal by simply dressing up like a cow.
Simple right? My thoughts exactly.
And there I was standing in line with black spots taped onto my white shirt and soccer shorts, awaiting my turn to order a number one meal free of charge when this reality hit me:
We’re all dressed like cows as if it’s normal.
The fact that an older gentleman wearing a green polo and khaki shorts made this contrast all the more apparent. He actually looked out-of-place wearing typical American apparel on a Georgia summer day. Chick-fil-a resembled a pasture way more than a dining establishment for human beings.
So many people dressed like cows we made everyone else look strange and weird for not going along with the costumes. This got me to thinking and pondering in awe as I stood in line:
What if this was our reality as Christians? What if, even though we’re made to be set apart as believers, we make not following Jesus look incredibly out-of-place by how we live?
Every one of us who dressed as a cow saw the cost of putting on a costume worth the gift of free food, even though we looked a bit ridiculous in doing so for a brief period of time. Do we as Christians see the cost of doing whatever the spiritual equivalent of dressing as cows is worth the free gift of salvation and becoming Jesus wherever we go?
You best believe I pondered on that nugget of truth as I ate my free Chick-fil-a sandwich. In the same way I saw it worth the effort of dressing up as a cow to eat a free meal, in even greater measure I see Jesus worth me looking ridiculous and out-of-place for his glorious name and power to manifest in and from me.
My recommendation to you: put on Christ as if he’s normal in the same way I rocked a cow costume in Chick-fil-a. We’ll start to see just how normal Christianity becomes as we do.
