Living Lives Of Significance

         Did you hear about the lady in Florida who went to McDonalds in search of chicken McNuggets?

         This is a true story.

         In February of this year, a 27 year old woman from Fort Pierce, Florida went in to her local McDonald’s restaurant and ordered a 10 piece chicken McNugget value meal. After her order was placed she paid for her food and waited for her meal to be brought out.

         The McDonald’s employee came back to the woman and reported that the store had run out of chicken McNuggets. The woman then asked for her money back, only to be told that all sales were final. She could order something else from the menu. But the lady didn’t want anything else from the menu…she wanted chicken McNuggets! She didn’t want a Big Mac. She wasn’t hungry for a McFish Sandwich or a McRib…she had come for McNuggets and McNuggets alone.

         By now the woman was in an emergency situation. She must have been because the next thing she did was take out her cell phone and call 911 to complain about not getting her chicken McNuggets. Oh that’s right. She was serious about her emergency situation…so much so that she called back to 911 three times.

         In the end she went home without her McNuggets. But she didn’t go home empty handed. She did take with her a ticket for misuse of the emergency 911 phone service.

         Can you believe that?

         It seems on a regular basis I have to ask myself why people can get so bent out of shape over the most minor and meaningless of matters. What is it about people that the smaller the detail the bigger the deal we make of it?

         It seems sometimes that people can easily get caught up in the most trivial things. I wonder if we do not become consumed by the insignificant when our lives are devoid of the significant. In other words, if we aren’t living lives centered on something that is a big deal, then everything will seem to us to be a big deal.

         The good news of Jesus Christ compels us to live lives of significance. In Colossians chapter 3, the Bible says:

         1 So if you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. 2 Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth, 3 for you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. 4 When Christ who is your life is revealed, then you also will be revealed with him in glory.

         The Bible instructs followers of Jesus Christ to “seek the things that are above, where Christ is.” We are told to “set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth.” Why? Because “Christ is your life.”

         At times we need a little perspective. Before we become infuriated, or agitated, or irritated, at some “issue” that will later turn out to be nothing, we may need to ask ourselves, “If Christ is my life, is this worth the time and energy that I am expending, or do I need to overlook this and focus on things that are above?”

         I’m convinced that a lack of chicken McNuggets at McDonalds would cease to be a life-altering event if people had something more important to live for! What is more important than living for Jesus Christ?