Wednesday, March 21, 2012

McDonald's

  You may know that I have strange dreams.  I often have dreams about people I knew in high school--sometimes we'll be going through strange museums, and the other night a bunch of us were in a minor fender bender in my car.  Often, I wake up wondering exactly what God meant by that.  Recently, I had a dream that I worked in the Apple store in Maastricht, Holland.  (I have never been there and have no idea if there is an Apple store there.  Perhaps God is calling me east?)

  Last night, I had a dream that dealt far more directly with the church.  I had a dream that every time you placed an order at McDonald's, you had to give them the name of the church to which you belonged, and then the church was informed of who was eating at McDonald's.  Believe me, this created quite a stream of information into the church office, with which we were uncertain as to what to do.  Also, confusion was caused by those who simply said "New Hope" and did not specify whether they meant New Hope Baptist or New Hope Presbyterian.

  My first thought, when I woke up, was that I have strange, strange dreams.  The second thought was that my dream was ridiculous.

  But then I started thinking--wouldn't it be amazing if we lived the kind of faith that led us to believe that God cares so much about every aspect of our lives that even our orders at McDonald's (or whatever your dining establishment of choice is--I would choose Zaxby's) were seen as a part of our life before Christ?  Wouldn't it be amazing if we were so aware of God's presence in all that we do that whenever we ate, wherever it was, it was recognized as food that was a gift of God, and that Christ was present with us as we ate?

  I believe that God cares about everything we do, and he wants our hearts and minds to be always focused on him--so that every breath is a prayer, so that every thought is about him.  I believe that what we do at work is just as important as what we do at church, because God is working in and through us in each place we go.  I think what we eat at a fast food location matters to God because everything we do matters--maybe it's not earth-shattering and a critical step in discipleship, but it matters to God because God wants to be a part of every moment of our lives and every beat of our hearts.

  It's ridiculous that a restaurant would ever ask for our church membership.  But maybe we need to think about how we are living as disciples when we are at McDonald's, just as much as when we are at church.

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