The Chicken or the Egg Run?

I had just dropped my family off at Agape Home School Co-op for the start of a new semester of weekly morning classes.  I had the morning to myself, with only two things on the docket: follow up a work interview at Chick-fil-A from last week, and pick up eggs from a local Amish farm.

If timing is everything, then the sequence of these two tasks and the events that ensued, speak as much into this story as the happenings themselves...

Arrangements had been made on Friday for me to make a follow up call to the owner of the local "inventor of the chicken sandwich".  What would be the status concerning my employment with our family's favorite food chain?  

My planner would have told me this, but I had it in my head that this call was to take place at 9:30 and not a half hour earlier.  That would explain why I heard, "I'm sorry, but (he) is not in yet this morning.  Can I give him a message?"  Hmm.  Okay, "I'll call back a little later.  Thanks!"  Next stop: egg run.

As I made my way through the open countryside, along the farm-strewn, two-lane roads, I could feel my inner space expanding.  Fields.  Trees.  Livestock.  Winding roads and creeks.  Bridges and barns and farm houses. For the farm-raised kid in me, just being in this environment is a real treat.  As a city dweller and on my own, this was also a retreat.

No sooner had I began my egg collecting journey than my mind began to be filled with the reflections of my morning time of listening in the Word.  "Deep calls to deep...in the roar of Your waterfalls...Your waves and breakers wash over me...Christ loved the Church...washing her with the Word as with water..."  I was being drawn in.  My spirit was being washed--flooded even--with the Spirit's presence.  His words continued...

I was burdened for a family member who was struggling that morning.  "My soul is downcast, therefore I will remember You." I remembered that one of the Spirit's roles is to "remind" us (John 14:26).  I began to ask the Holy Spirit to remind this loved one of what they knew to be true, that they would remember God and His goodness in the midst of all that was weighing on them.  (A later report would reveal that prayer was answered, if not in that hour, in those two hours that followed.  Thank you Jesus!)

Arriving at the little depot, my pick-up location for the eggs, my heart was so full!  I entered the tiny one room market singing.  It was self-help day, so I was again, alone.  I found so much joy in simply being honest with what I was taking, recording it in the ledger, and placing the correct payment in the cash box.

I collected my six dozen eggs.  As I walked out to my grand Caravan (mini-van that is, not camels), I stopped to breath in the fresh country air and take in the scenery around me.  Then I heard it, the babbling of the creek that wound around the bottom of the hill just below the drive.  There were the words again, "caring for her with the washing of water by the Word".  Christ loving the Church, washing us with the water of His Word.  I knew it in that moment.  I could almost taste the sweet water of the Rocky Mountain spring-fed creeks I once knew as a kid.  God was near.  No, God was within, stirring His truth to wash and refresh my own spirit, quickening me to intercede for others in their places of thirst.

I go to such lengths in my word pictures to illustrate that my heart was already full and content prior to getting back to the other task at hand for the day--the phone call.  

I have been nervous many times, anticipating phone conversations such as this one.  Not this time.  Did I need the job?  Yes.  But in light of my egg run retreat, the answer from a potential employer was in total perspective: if not this, He had something else for us.  

So when I heard the words, "I am definitely interested in hiring you...can you begin next week?", my excitement was tempered--dimmed--by the joy of hearing the Living Word in those moments and miles leading up to this point.

The significance of all of this for me, and thus the significance of the timing of it all, is that I did not need the job in order to be fulfilled today.  As one author states, "Jesus is the gift we seek.  Nothing else."  And another, "It is not the pursuit of God, but His pursuit of us that saves and sustains us.  Whether I pursue Him or not, He pursues me constantly.  Because He is for me--for you--He will be found by us..."

I rejoice in the Lord, the Living Word--Christ in me the Hope of Glory.  I thank Him for His provision via an opportunity to serve others and lead in the environment that is Chick-fil-A. I am grateful for the flexibility that this job brings, and the space to move up as I develop rapport with the existing leadership team. And I look forward to the other opportunities He will afford me by allowing us to stay in this area.

But in this saga, however grateful I may be for the chicken, I rejoice today in the One I found on a simple egg run.