Hamburger, Fries and a Chocolate Shake – What’s Your Christian Walk Like?
What’s your Christian walk like… really? Have you ever wondered what your witness looks like to God? In this story-lesson let’s see what we look like. Hopefully, this story will stay with you as it has me and be a constant reminder of what you need to be striving for in your relationships with God, your spouse and others.
In college, we had a class called The Learning Process. Our professor told an interesting story. By the way, I’ll probably make you hungry, but here it goes. You walk into restaurant number one and order a hamburger, french fries, and a chocolate milkshake. You can tell that while the waitress is technically there, they really don’t want to be. They complain about how terrible it is to work there. Looking around, it looks like a do-it-yourselfer did the patch-up carpentry work and the place isn’t very clean. Did it pass inspection? Where’s the certificate on the wall? It makes you wonder how clean the kitchen is, but you quickly try to divert your mind because you don’t want to think about it. The music is loud and the lyrics are offensive. You know, “Rip off your right leg, rip off your left leg, come on let’s dance.” They finally, they call out your order number. You go to the counter and there is no one there, so you assume this orphan meal is yours and take it, hoping you are doing the right thing. The burger and fries are in a basket with a plastic paper liner thingy (If you’re not familiar with it, thingy is a technical term). The aesthetic appeal leaves a lot to be desired. The bun is a bit torn and looks like it was cranked out of a non-caring bakery. You know the feeling, it is a bun, but you can’t say it is appealing or enticing. In fact, you ponder just eating the burger instead of the sandwich. So you pop the hood on the bun only to find this little, shriveled up burger. It’s so small you couldn’t even see it without opening the bun! You didn’t even know anyone made a one-eighth-pound burger. You check the temperature with your finger and it’s barely warm. The ketchup is in one little circle off to one side. You’d like to spread it around with a knife, but they didn’t bring you one. You try to spread it with the bun, but there isn’t enough ketchup to do so, and besides, it is soaked into the very dry bun. The fries are few and puny. It looks like the machine they ran them through was set for maximum fries. The fries look like they need to lift some weights or something. They just look anemic. They are greasy, soft and they aren’t very warm either. Now, you need to know that I’m a milkshake connoisseur. I make the world’s best milkshakes… no brag – just fact. I use the milkshake maker my parents used when they were dating 70 years ago. It is black and it is very, very heavy. Dropping it on your foot would probably involve a trip to the emergency room. At the time of this writing, the featured flavor in our home is peanut butter and caramel. There are two rules in our home. One, if you want a milkshake, I have to make it and two, you are never told you’ve had enough. So, when I order a milkshake, it had better be pretty good. Back to the order now – this thing is a poor representation of a milkshake. First of all, it came from a soft-serve machine. You can tell it was made from vanilla ice cream because it’s almost white in color. It barely has any chocolate in it to color it. You are dreading even tasting it. There’s just enough chocolate that you can see it wasn’t well mixed. One can see white and somewhat chocolate stratifications inside the styrofoam cup.
Now, in contrast, you walk into restaurant number two and order a hamburger, french fries, and a chocolate milkshake. (Sounds familiar, huh?) The person taking your order is having fun and their smile and enthusiasm are such that it takes your mind to a better place also. There’s just something so great about going to a place to do business and the people are actually glad you are there. It makes you glad to be there also. The deco is 60’s diner with lots of very clean chrome and bright red, black and white colors. The music is 60’s and you find yourself getting lost in the sun and the waves of southern California. In about ten minutes this same friendly person brings out this big heavy plate like grandma used to have… and it is HOT, but it’s OK because she warns you! It looks like a work of art. You actually get out your phone to snap a picture because you want to show this off to your family and friends! The meal is like a treasure of neat things to discover. The bun is very large and has lots of sesame seeds. It has been lightly buttered and toasted. The edges are almost crispy! That’s just the way you like it! If you would have known it was going to be so large, you would have shared it! (Probably not, but its a thought) You want to ask the nice waitress to bring the to-go box for half of it now, but it looks so good you know you will try to eat it all. After you start to examine the perfectly toasted sesame seed huge bun you are distracted by the size of the burger. You can tell it was hand-pattied – just like mom used to make. You lift the bun top just because you want to look at this piece of art and you are impressed. Everything just the way you want it and it looks like the person who did it cared enough to make it look great – even by the way they put the condiments on. The fries are thick and crinkle cut. The edges are just a little crispy, just like you like them… and they are very hot! The milkshake is in a fountain glass – made of real glass! The milkshake is made from hand-dipped ice cream and you know because it has that perfect little detail. There is one little chunk of ice cream that hasn’t been disturbed (every good milkshake has to have this)! Look at this – they drizzled a bit of chocolate syrup on the top of the shake! There is whipped cream and a cherry on top. Oh my! They even brought the steel milkshake container they mixed it in – and it is almost half full. You can see just a little chocolate syrup on the outside of the steel cup. Just enough to make it feel like it was made at home instead of a restaurant.
Back from the kitchen? Ok, here’s the deal. You ordered exactly the same thing at two different restaurants… and yet you had two totally different experiences. The difference was the commitment to a purpose. One restaurant understood and was committed to their purpose and one was not. My college professor said this is what it’s like when a professor gives a writing assignment. They ask a class of students for one thing and they get these two extremely different things… and everything in-between. Then he asked, “Which paper will yours be?”
But here’s the application to this story. God’s Word is the same for all of us… and a lot of people say they are Christians… yet just like these two meals, God gets a variety of levels of commitment. Our commitment will temper the decisions we make, the way we walk, talk and the way we relate to others. Your level of commitment to Christ will directly affect the level of commitment to your marriage.
There are no shortcuts. God calls us to be imitators of Him. He came in the flesh not only to save us but so we would know what He’s like. In Jesus, God walked the earth with skin – so that we might know Him. It would only make sense that the more we’re like God, the more content we will be and that our marriages will be as He intended. God calls a woman to submit, and a man to love his wife as Christ loved the church (which is really the ultimate submission)… and He gets “Christian” marriages that are as extremely different as the illustrations above. Knowing God changes your purpose. Let’s put it another way. The way we live out our purpose exposes whether or not we really know God. Dig into knowing God and you will reap the benefits of a great marriage.
