What with Thanksgiving just around the corner I thought that this story about food would hit the spot. A couple of days ago, my wife, Kathy, had a sales vendor bring in a luncheon to her office. Often we have lunch together, but she decided to eat at the office that day. Undeterred, I went by myself to a restaurant that we frequent. This particular restaurant is a nice restaurant, not just a fast food place.
Immediately upon my arrival at the restaurant, the staff recognized me and greeted me warmly. One employee asked me, “So where’s your wife?” I explained the situation to him and then said, “But you know, a man’s gotta eat.” He smiled and replied boisterously, “You got that right, Brother.” Instantly a flow of responses began to rise up from the occupants of this restaurant. The cook in the back had heard us and said, “No truer words were ever spoken.” Another member of the staff was walking through that part of the restaurant and he offered an “Amen to that, Brother!” Suddenly I found myself in the “Church of the Hungry Man” and leading the congregation of “The Full Plate Ministries.” Now men who were eating began to chide in with affirmations such as, “You know it!” and another “That’s right, a man’s gotta eat!”
Now I have heard it said that the way to a man’s heart is through his stomach, but I had never before seen such a public display of confirmation of that age old adage. I felt like I had touched a nerve with these men and that somehow, without intention, I had stirred in them a passion that was simply waiting inside of them for an opportunity to erupt into a unified, all guy, rally cry. We stood there for that brief second united as one man, with one heartbeat, one mind and one cause. In that moment, I could have led them charging up a hill infested with machinegun nests, if they were convinced that the evil foe secreted on that hill were a threat to their abilities to plate their next hearty meal.
I left there with my meal, a take out order. Bag in hand I walked out with total strangers wishing me well and to have a great day. Indeed we were one. Our cause was good and right and just. I got in my car and drove around the building to exit the parking lot and as I passed by the kitchen exit, two of the employees were outside. “See ya later, Brother,” they said with a smile. “See ya”, I responded and then watched them fade away in my rear view mirror.
Yeah, it was a silly little incident; but you know what? I drove away from there feeling a little taller and a little stronger. I realized how powerful it is when we can stand together, sure of whom we are and what our cause is. Men, women, children, it really doesn’t matter. The strength and feeling of empowerment comes from the unity of purpose. No wonder Paul wrote this to the Church of Ephesus: till we all come to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a perfect man, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ; that we should no longer be children, tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, in the cunning craftiness of deceitful plotting, but, speaking the truth in love, may grow up in all things into Him who is the head-Christ. – Ephesians 4:13-15. Coming to that perfect man requires each of us to hold up our end. When we do, KaPow! Unity. It’s enough to make you think about charging forward, isn’t it? Blessings!

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