never far from home and a burger

Thanks to the McDonald Bros, and the Interstate Highway System, it is possible to never be far from a hamburger.  On my recent quick trip over the Interstates in 16 states, it is verifiably true the hamburger and its variations is still America’s go to food.  Even though Subway with its Halal blessed meats are found under very rock, and KFC won’t mention Fried Chicken in its name anymore, there are other choices, but it all comes down to the burger.  And how and what you get with it.  So let’s get with it....

In New Mexico it Blake’s Lot a Burger, eat the green chili cheeseburger for maximum effect.  Crossing into Texas and Oklahoma look for a Braum’s, and the $5.89 1/4 pound cheeseburger deal, which includes a real milk shake.  With crinkle cut fries.  Steak and Shake is more about the shake anymore, with $4 double meat meal deals.  Culver’s makes a fine butter burger, but it is the custard to stop for, and the concrete of the day.  I made the mistake of eating at a Burger King in Nowhere, Arkansas, next time I will have it my way and eat elsewhere.  I still pass on McDonald’s as they still are trying to reinvent themselves, even the fries are different, no more frying in lard.  Stop for a sack of White Castle burgers, steamed, or pass on one of the many “World’s Best hamburger” stores along the way.  Carls’ Jr. become Hardees, or is it the other way around, Sonic is a local thing for Texans, with one store in Arkansas having a motorcycle only stall, but still no place to hang the tray on my Tiger.  Five Guys I can pass on, too much grease, and a friend used to sell meat to Wendy’s, there is a reason it is juicy, lots of fat.  In So Cal and now branching out is In-and-Out, Bakers’ in San Berdoo, and White Diamond in Jersey, not to be confused with White Castle.  The Gino Giant and Carroll’s Club Burger are long gone, and any place offering food can fry you up a burger.  So no matter how you order it, it is still a burger, between two pieces of bread....which leads to the choice of fries....

Sonic and other local chains offer tater tots, and some with toppings.  Crinkle cut fries are a nice change from fries, and even fries, notice not French Fries any more, are of many different types, styles, sizes, and flavors.  With each adding different take to the meal.  Add a Coke, or a milkshake, a real one, and nothing is quite as American.  No matter how and where you travel, you are never far form home when you can grab a burger....

Now just as there are many ways to honor your burger craving, many will tell you how to live your life as a Christian.  Some have the ability to turn Jesus on and off, or as an old boss told me once, “it only makes sense not to bring God to work.”  Sadly many agree.  Although we have earthly bosses, we are reminded that we are servants of the Lord Jesus Christ. We forget or neglect that we are always under God’s watchful eye, we become more concerned with the fact the boss may be watching.  But if he is, what do our actions and attitudes tell him and others  about Jesus?  Eye service is one way we don’t honor God, only working when someone is watching, reflecting how they really feel about God.  If you cheat men, don’t you think God notices?  If you really are a Christian remember it is not only a human eye that is watching, and your true character may be shown to all.  Including those not watching...just waiting for you to fall, and you willingly do.

Another side is men pleasing, kissing up to those in authority, to make yourself look good.  When you care more about what men think than God thinks, you are double minded, and unstable in all your ways.  All, God’s word not mine.  When you start to compromise, where do you stop?  Yet as Christians many believe these things are honorable, that they achieve a purpose.  If only I am a good worker, the boss will show me favor, but what about God?  Christians are supposed to be above this, and are let down when they find it doesn’t accomplish a thing.  And sometimes are secretly mocked behind their backs.  Paul puts it simply, “obey your earthly masters with a singleness of heart, doing the will of God.”  Maybe the problem most Christians face is turning Jesus off at work, and forgetting to turn him on when they leave.  Just as the burger is America’s go to food, Jesus is our go to God, religion and denominations may contaminate that, but Jesus will always be Jesus.  If only the next meal you eat you could eat with such assurance. 

But just like the choice of your burger and fries, of what flavor milkshake or what brand of burger, God allows us to make the choice.  You can have him with everything, or just choose what works for your appetite at the time.  Fast food has brought us a standardization of burgers, don’t let your relationship with Jesus get stale.  Church and work are two places God should always show in your life, yet many leave him when entering and forget to take him with him when leaving.  Church or work.  If you struggle with taking Jesus to work, it will show in all your life’s choices.  Be all that you can be in him, go about your day knowing he never left you, he is still watching and watching out for you.  Even if you cannot see him, he sees you.  An easy choice, as when you please him, it will reflect in your attitudes, your work, and your testimony.  I know exactly what to expect when I order at Braum’s, or Blake’s or Whataburger.  I may not know the kid behind the counter, but I know the burger.  And he may not know Jesus.  Don’t mess up the chance to serve God while being served.  For like a burger, he is never far away from you.  Don’t leave God at the door....the sign may say KFC, but any idiot knows it is still fried chicken.  Don’t you think those same idiots can see through you too?

How does your appetite for God compare to your appetite for a burger now?

love with compassion,

Mike

matthew25biker.blogspot.com

Fanwood-it could happen to you

Nestled in the center of Scotch Plains, where I grew up, is a small, one square mile town of Fanwood.  Once known for its abundance of millionaires per square mile, it was a town of 300 year old homes, a 150 year old train station, and a busy, but small downtown.  A place where as a kid we went to shop.  In one square block was the hardware store where we bought the nails for our forts, the pharmacy owned by Terry’s dad, with a fleet of VW’s, how we wanted  one to pull up in our driveway, Hand Lumber where my dad bought all his building supplies to finish the upstairs, and an ESSO station where BH bought his first bike, a used CL 77 for $50.  The steeple from the Presbyterian church is still there, where Bruce’s dad preached, and the dentist office where Nicky’s girl friend worked, and where he tested the NOX waiting to pick her up.  A vibrant downtown always bustling with people, from getting gas at Henry’s father’s gas station and getting the latest gossip, to the post office where many of my friends from high school went to work after graduation.  But always the focal point of the downtown was The Corner Store on the corner of South Ave. and Martine Avenue.  The place where many of us tried our skills at stealing, under the watchful eye of Dave, puffing away on his huge Corona, the owner.  Where girlie magazines were left out in the open for us, and the smoky counter in the aback was always occupied with greasers.  Later it moved onto Martine and was renamed The Corner Store in the Middle of the Block, but had lost a lot of its charm along with its longer name.  Dave was gone, the air was cleaner, and so were the magazines and greasers.  That was the Fanwood I remembered, and expected as I came over the viaduct a few weeks ago....

Only to find progress, or its perverted definition on display.  All the old buildings were torn down, and the entire city block was being converted into four story apartment houses, expensive rich yuppie housing, with a Colonial façade.  Even the condemned ground where Dean Oil used to be, apartments.  No more Scotchwood Pharmacy, no ESSO station, and no Corner Store, from either location.  The latest inhabitants had voted and wanted a non-descript downtown, and they got it.  With all the glass face businesses alike except for signage.  Even the train station has been updated, and not one landmark to give directions from or to.   History had been put to rest, and now was beginning anew, I wonder how many of the kids growing up will return years later and get sentimental about the non-descript downtown?  The place where we bought nails and lumber, or bought nickel candy bars?  Will the historical train station be remembered with the new façade, and how many will have memories of their dads rushing across the street from the new high rises to grab the train to the City?  And who will pass on the local gossip now that Henry’s dad no longer pumps gas there anymore?  I wonder about Fanwood, and could it happen to me?

Among the many things that makes the gospel unique is that God inspired it.  And no other books are necessary, it has it all, wholly from a Holy God.  Written from a shepherd’s perspective of one who loves and cars for his flock, it has remained true to God for thousands of years.  Like Jesus, who is the Word, they are the same yesterday, today, and forever.  You never have to wonder if what you are doing is right or wrong today and may be different tomorrow, God never changes.  He wants us to change to be like him.  Yet men have taken the gospel into their own hands, and changed it for their own selfish means.  Pastors pass on sin, on the holy spirit, and have taken on socially good causes, neglecting the eternal ones.  Even scripture is twisted and studied, looking for the one word to OK their sin.  Like Fanwood, a new façade is being placed on the Bible, and turning Jesus into something he isn’t.  Or was never meant to be.  A recent program highlighted these items, and it is sad to see how subtle the devil is and how immature too many Christians are.  These pastors got it somewhere and passed it on, and so many trust the man in the pulpit rather than the man on the cross.  Read the following twelve things and see what I mean.  For like Fanwood, it could happen to you....

1)  Keep them busy with non essentials.  2)  Tempt them to overspend and go into debt.  3)  Make them work long hours to maintain empty life styles.

4)  Discourage them from spending family time together, for when their homes disintegrate there is no refuge from work. 5)  Over stimulate their minds with television and computers, so they can’t hear God speaking to them.  6)  Fill their coffee tables and nightstands with newspapers and magazines so they have no time to read the Bible.

7)  Flood their mailboxes with sweepstakes promotions and get rich quick schemes to keep them chasing material things.  8)  Put glamour models on TV  and on magazine covers to keep them focused on outward appearances.  That way they will be dissatisfied with themselves and dissatisfied with their mates.  9)  Make sure couples are too exhausted for physical intimacy so they will be tempted to look elsewhere.

10)  Make Santa and the easter bunny bigger than Jesus to divert them from remembering the real meaning of the holiday.  11)  Involve them in good causes so they won’t have time for eternal ones.

12)  Make them self  satisfied. Keep them busy working in their own strength so they’ll never know the joy of God’s power working through them.

Either your life is all about Jesus or all about yourself.  In a year and time of testing to see who we say Jesus is, can you afford to be popular and trendy, or stand fast with God?  I am sure the planners of the revitalized Fanwood had good intentions, but maybe look back before we look ahead.  Fanwood-it could happen to you.  Fortunately God knows the plans he has for you, do you?  Interested, just ask him.  He is guiding your steps even now, is the Bible or Oprah more of an influence on your daily walk?  Just as Fanwood could happen to you, so can Jesus.  Your choice, a façade or the real thing.  A today with no tomorrow or a today with a bright future?  It was once asked of Jesus, “can anything good come out of Nazareth?”  It’s your town...can anything good come out of you? 

I’ll keep my memories, and my Jesus.  My memory may fade, he never will.

love with compassion,

Mike

matthew25biker.blogspot.com

Interstate cowboys

According to the info center on Theresa’s Mustang, I had driven 5815 miles in just over 85 hours of seat time.  A call had come in that I was needed back in Jersey, so five days later I was there, two days to settle business, then six home.  Now I have done cross country rides on two wheels almost 20 times, but this was my first car run since 1975 by myself, and all of it on the Interstates, which I usually avoid.  Set the cruise at 80, point and steer, and enjoy the scenery.  Which isn’t much in winter, black trees, brown fields, grey skies, and piles of left over snow mixed with grit and dirt.  Days of temps in the thirties, with some days not hitting 40, but I sat comfortable in heated comfort, many times with whatever the radio could pick up for company.  From so many religious programs, amazing how the gospel can be turned around and perverted to suit someone’s sin, numerous shows about the end of the world and invasions of aliens, and an amazing amount of bad country music.   Is there no end to how bad music can be?  But fortunately I was rescued occasionally by an oldies station, not the preprogrammed Classic rock, but oldies, AM from the 50-60’s.  And after 85 hours, I was ready for home, and of all things a motorcycle ride....

But traveling the freeways of America, you are among the Interstate cowboys, truckers.  With a road courtesy all their own, and once you follow it, you are welcomed to drive with them.  To other travelers, just a slow truck in the fast lane, with one sign on a trailer reminding us, “if you don’t like trucks, quit buying things.”  That about says it all.  But stopping at rest stops, and seeing them catch a few hours of sleep, waiting for their number to be called at truck stops for a shower, and following their driving, a new respect has been earned of them by me.  These Interstate cowboys truly live on the freeways of America, keeping the goods flowing, trying to gain speed to make the next hill, trying to make it home for a few hours with family and loved ones, and with low pay, high fuel costs, and little time with family.  A lonely life, and after 85 hours of driving among them, I was lonely too....

While I got to travel, Theresa was home for 13 days taking care of business, and doing a great job of it.  But we missed each other terribly, for as the scripture tells us, the two of us have become one.  We knew the trip was something I had to do, but still separation does not always make the heart grow fonder, it can also make it lonely.  In marriage, God has provided us for the way to overcome that loneliness, that via the commitment we make before man and to him, we have become one.  When one hurts, we both hurt, when one rejoices, we both rejoice.  But strangely enough, when one is down, the other isn’t.  God has created something in our marriage with him in the center of it, where we can be independent on each other, but dependent on him at the same time.  And here Jesus also tells us that we are to love our wife as our selves, and that she will respect her husband.  This is only accomplished with Jesus in the center of your marriage, as without him in it, you may have a good marriage, but never see all the blessings God has for you both.  Blessings that are passed down to other family members, and a testimony of Jesus Christ in a life.  Only in Christ can we be all of the individual we can be, but in our marriages we can have all the spouse we ever need.  Till death do us part, as the vows say.....

Much can be said about the Proverbs 31 wife, and has, but how many can brag on a Matthew 25 wife?  One whose heart is sold out to Jesus, who trusts her husband to minister as he is shown, maybe bring home a homeless man, spend money feeding someone with money set aside for a special dinner, or visit someone sick?  And in this case, give up her car and her husband for two weeks, with memories of my open heart surgery and having to go it alone.  Except for Jesus, marriage, my marriage will never work.  But for 41 years, God has been faithful, with nothing being able to come between us, except the love of Christ.  Husbands don’t wait to be respected, start loving her today......

I travel different by myself, eating places and taking roads that I wouldn’t when she is with me.  I have learned my life is not about me, but about us, and the Jesus that binds us together.  So keep your wife or husband in prayer, take every opportunity to show love and respect, and by doing so keep the great commandment, to love God first, then your neighbor as yourself.  I was never lonely on the road knowing what I had waiting for me at home, maybe that is what keeps a trucker trucking, those moments with family that have become more precious in his absence.  They too are sacrificing something to make our world go around, so keep them in prayer.  Cowboys like bikers will always have a sense of freedom that those who don’t have or understand, so do the truckers.  Give them a lane, flash them when the lane is open, let them ahead of you in line, and become a part of America in doing so.  That unseen person in the cab has a family too, and a thanks to them for reminding me all I had waiting for me at home.  Show respect and courtesy to get them back, you don’t have to leave Kansas as Dorothy did to know there is no place like home. 

And of course the first thing Theresa wanted to do, go for a motorcycle ride.....proving that the two truly do become one.  Only in Christ.

love with compassion,

Mike

matthew25biker.blogspot.com