Thoughts from the Fajitas

This message was originally printed in my student newsletter in February.

So I'm at the local Mexican restaurant with my computer and I start thinking. Of course the first thing I realize is that trying to type while eating fajitas is not a good idea. So after five paper towels and a prayer over my keyboard later, I'm back and I'm still thinking.

In case you haven't ever been to a Mexican restaurant, or been living in a cave outside of Broaddus, you have experienced the most wonderful phenomenon when someone orders a fajita plate in a good restaurant...

the sizzling plate.

It calls to you. It says, "hey Bro. Daron, I'm here to fill you up and you are going to love me." It calls to me like when I drive past a Starbucks logo. The sound fills the room and lets everyone else know that a fajita has been ordered. Then you start hearing other people say, "mmmm, that smells good," and "I'll have one too."

Recently, on a TV show that I won't name on the grounds that it may incriminate me into loads of teasing from all of you, someone referred to a performance as being "All sizzle with no steak." Meaning that it had a lot of spice and difficult things, but the meat was not there.

What would have happened if today, I heard that wonderful sound as the waitress came to me, only to find nothing on the plate but sizzling onions?

Paul, the best-selling author of half of the New Testament, warned us about things like this. No, he wasn't a food critic, but he warned us about making a lot of noise in our lives but not acting like it.

"If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. If I give all I possess to the poor and surrender my body to the flames, but have not love, I gain nothing." (I Corinthians 13:1-3)

People all around me know who I am here in town. I am watched because I am a pastor and people expect certain things out of me. But that is how it should be with every Christian, not just those with three letters in front of their names. People will look to all of us to see what God looks like in our lives. If we say we are Christians but then live as if we weren't, we are like a sizzling plate with no fajitas. We need to show the love of God with the way we live each day (our steak), not just with our words (our sizzle).

P.S. Try the shrimp mmmmmmm -D