My
wife pulled a chicken out of the freezer recently, and unceremoniously dropped
it into a pot.
It was a Sunday morning, and Jean prepared
to go to work. My wife is a nurse, and she works various days and various
shifts. Just before leaving, she admonished me: “Bill, I’m leaving. The
chicken’s done, but it’s still hot. Put it in the fridge in 45 minutes, and
after you get back from church, you’ll have food for lunch.”
Well, that was a really good theory. But…
I forgot the “bird” was on the stovetop. As I remember now, I had lunch at Taco
Bell, and the little chicken continued to sit on the stovetop, alone and
ignored, all day and into the night.
Jean came home at midnight, and immediately
saw the pot and bird on the stove, just where she left it. “Honey, what’s this?
Didn’t I tell you to put the chicken in the fridge? You didn’t eat any of it!”
My reply was totally expected: “I forgot.”
Call me crazy. Call me weird, but I began
to think about that chicken. I began to consider the futility of her life. She
lived her whole life through, waiting to be consumed by some hungry human being,
only to be neglected in her death; her MISSION having never been fulfilled.
Call me crazy. Call me weird, but I genuinely feel sorry for that old bird. It
just seems sad to me that she lived and died, and failed to be all that she was
designed to be.
That Dear, Unfulfilled Fowl will be buried today. But then, let's not get totally carried away here. No bands will play. She won't be buried with full military honors. There will be no mourners, (except perhaps me).
Still,
you get my drift.
But if the loss and waste of one old
chicken “brings a tear,” how much more so the waste of a single human being.
One human being, unfulfilled. A whole lifetime dedicated to… NOTHING! There are those among us who
live for NOTHING, who amount to NOTHING, and who seem content to amount to NOTHING.
There are Christians and Sinners alike, who
wile their lives away… doing NOTHING,
or worse than NOTHING. And then there are secular people achieving so much more for mankind than their peers whom they call... Christians.
Oh, brother. Oh, sister, act now,
before it’s too late. No, I’m not talking about your Salvation. And no, I’m not
talking about works having the ability to save us.
But, it’s just sad to consider how little
we impact people, unless we plan to impact
people. No one ever pulled a U-haul behind a hearse. You can’t take “stuff”
with you. The pharaohs tried, and failed. Their gold, jewels and “stuff” were
plundered years ago, or just sits in the silent halls of museums across the
world. None of that “stuff” ultimately matters. The only thing we take to
heaven is the way we Impact people. I
marvel at the good, at the impact, at the power of people who plan to do good. I marvel at the impact of my own ministry; the thousands
who have been effected, the hundreds who have been changed. I marvel at the
impact of those volunteer leaders who work under me in this wonderful ministry.
I think of the initial three who said, “Send Me.” As this ministry initially
impacted them, so they go on to impact people. The baton has been passed!
Our little bird may not have died in vain,
after all. She has departed, but her lesson lingers.
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