Fast Food

The next day, he saw Jesus coming to him, and said, "Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world! (John 1:29 WEB)

As a little boy I remember my first visit to White Castle. This paragon of good food and fine dining set my standard of cuisine excellence for a lifetime. When I was older, I was introduced to the world wide favorite, McDonald's. Say what you will about their dietary presentation I like the place and apparently so do millions of other people. My life is filled with fast food and I'm not complaining. I'm enjoying the experience.

Fast food makes any dietician shudder with fear but it has its uses. When you have two minutes between trains, it can keep you from starvation. A car full of boisterous children can quickly be quieted by a stop at the drive thru. And, traveling missionaries can eat without the fear of ingesting a case of Montezuma's Revenge.

I remember eating at McDonald's in Russia, Sri Lanka, Guam, Hong Kong, Japan, Korea and a mess of European countries. (Some European countries are a mess but that is not the point.) Other countries, unfortunately, don't support such modern conveniences, at least nothing I recognize. One exception was my work in Central Asia.

After arriving and gathering all our equipment and then loading the vehicles we drove from the city where the airport was located to another city in the mountains. What would normally be a one and a half hour drive took more than two hours including a stop for a bite to eat at a roadside bar‑b‑q. This was the Central Asian version of fast food.

The outdoor BBQ kitchen was located on what used to be a building site on the side of the road. All that was left was the concrete flooring which made room for parking. The kitchen stove consisted of a tin tray with wood burning at one end. When an order was placed, the pieces of lamb were stuck on a long metal spit and laid across the tin box with ashes from the fire pushed below to start the cooking. It didn’t take long to cook and the heat from the fire helped warm up my cold hands.

When we wanted more the proprietor reached into the trunk of his car and extracted more pieces of meat for the next spit. I watched as small pieces of rust fell from the dilapidated vehicle trunk lid into the box of freshly butchered meat. I suppose this was part of the unique seasoning.

It was a particularly tasty meal served on flat, paper thin, bread. As the cook prepared our afternoon snack we stood in a heavy breeze between Snow‑covered Mountains. My Guam blood wasn’t happy with the situation and I was already bundled up with a sweater, two shirts, and several pairs of socks, coat and gloves. I reminded myself God called me there.

Sometimes people approach the Lamb of God like selecting items in a fast food restaurant. We order a piece here to cure that grumbling in the stomach. We order a bit there to give us a little strength as we hurry to another event. It might keep us alive but we won't develop properly any more than eating fast food will provide all the necessary nutrients.

I like what it says in The Message, "An intelligent person is always eager to take in more truth; fools feed on fast‑food fads and fancies." (Proverbs 15:14) Are we grabbing for fads and fancies? It may be time to grow strong on the good food of God's word?

“Every Scripture is God‑breathed and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for instruction in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, thoroughly equipped for every good work.” (2 Timothy 3:16‑17 WEB)

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