Hello,
“I’ll have it a little hotter than that,” I told the waitress after
placing an order of “sweet and spicy” chicken wings for my wife who was stuck
in traffic and is no fan of heat.
“Louis?” she said, having
heard my description.
“Sounds fine,” I said back to her.
When the waitress brought out our two orders of chicken wings, I looked
at my wife’s order that looked like it had been coated with a dark maple
syrup…it looked good! Then I looked
at my “little hotter than that” order that was a covered with a bright
orangish, redish sauce. The mere
sight of it felt hot.
Still caught in traffic, my wife called me and told me to go ahead and
eat. I took a careful gaze at my
plate to find the chicken wing with the most meat, and I picked it up. It was heavily sauced, so my fingers
were immediately covered in orangish, redish heat. I brought the wing to my lips, which also took on the
orange, red sauce, and bit into the meat.
Instantly my lips and tongue caught on fire. No matter how much I licked my lips with my tongue, the
sting persisted. I wondered, “If
this is a ‘little hotter than that’, what would a ‘lot hotter than that’ be
like? Four or five more bites of
liquid fire, and I had the first wing consumed. The problem was that there was 11 more waiting for me in
that basket filled with the sauce.
Having survived the first one, I figured I should give a second wing a
try. Not a good idea. My burning lips and tongue took on a
heat that could set metal on fire.
The problem was that I am a bit of a tight-wad, so I wasn’t about to let
even one of these wings to go waste.
The other problem was that after eating these two wings, there were 10
left. I had just paid $7.99 for these wings, and I
wasn’t about to leave some hot wings uneaten. I wasn’t about to leave even a cent’s worth of chicken wings
on my plate. So, with $7.99
invested in these wings, I decided that I was going to eat them all, every one
of them. And I did.
I had paid for them….and I wasn’t going to let my payment be in vain. I ate them all, and when I had finished
the sweat was pouring from my scalp, my tongue and lips felt like they were the
victims of third degree burns. I
knew that I was going to pay the price of a lava churning stomach for the rest
of the night. When I ordered them,
I hadn’t planned on them being so hot…but I had paid for them….and I wasn’t
going to let $7.99 go down the drain by leaving even one of them on my plate.
When I wonder if I am “a little hotter” than Jesus expected…and I
probably am….no, I know I am….and I consider the determination to not let my
$7.99 be in vain compared to the price that Jesus paid for me….his life, I have
hope. Great hope. If I will not give up on hot chicken
wings because I spent $7.99 on them, I have great hope that Jesus will not give
up on “hot chicken wings me” because he spent his life on me.
And my hope is not just based on my cheap-scape stubbornness. It is based on what I see, Sunday after
Sunday. Every Sunday, no matter
how hot I am, Jesus welcomes me to his table and says…”this is my body, given
for you…this is my blood, shed for you.”
And he says the same thing to you.
If you have become a “hot potato”, too hot for the world to touch, come
and find out that there is one who is determined to hold on to you and never let
you go…Jesus….he paid the price of his life for you, and he is determined to
not let the price of his life go down the drain.
That is hope!
Have a great week.
God’s grace and peace, (ggap)
Pastor Jerry Nuernberger
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