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Love At A Chick-fil-A

I love Chick-fil-A. I love their great service. I love their clean restaurants. I love how they ask you if you want a refill and then they bring you an after dinner mint. Love em! If you've ever been to a Chick-fil-A then there is no doubt that you have heard them say, "my pleasure." They say in replace of you're welcome. I went to a Chick-fil-A once in the sticks of North Carolina. The person working the drive thru was "my pleasure" happy. I knew they were on auto-pilot and just saying the phrase so I decided to mess with them a little bit. I decided to say something to them that didn't fit having a "my pleasure" response. As I'm leaving the drive through I said, "have a nice day." He responded with "my pleasure." I laughed.

One morning on the way to a video shoot I told some of the guys that I work with about that story. We were headed to Chick-fil-A for breakfast. The guys in the car said that I should try it again. This time I through out something and I had no idea how they would respond. After they repeated my order I said and I quote, "I love you." Without even flinching the voice in the drive thru box said, "I love you too." They didn't pause. They didn't stumble. They didn't even say "my pleasure." They boldly said "I love you too." Amazing! We laughed about that for minutes.

This past week in my Adult Community Group we talked about some very convicting verses from the Bible. 1 John 3:10 "This is how we know who the children of God are and who the children of the devil are: Anyone who does not do what is right is not a child of God; nor is anyone who does not love his brother."

I love you is such a personal thing to say. I didn't tell my wife that I loved her until I proposed to her. I feel awkward saying I love you to friends. Saying I love you is not something that you just throw around. But according to this verse it is something that should be evident of Christ Followers. You can't follow Jesus and hate someone.

When you think about what Chick-fil-A is known for you think about a lot of really good things. When you think about what Christians are known for you think about a lot of really negative things. What if Christians were known more for what they were for then what they were against? What if Christians were known for how they love others even when they disagree with them? What if Christians were known for their love? It would change the world.

John 13:35 "By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.”

Is it awkward for you to say I love you? Do you love Chick-fil-A?

First Annual Blogging All Star Challenge: Update

So a few weeks ago I pitched an idea to Ricky Anderson. Sports teams have All-Star games so why can't bloggers? We picked 5 bloggers each and let you vote on which team was better. It was the First Annual Blogging All Star Challenge.

Team Ricky:
Matt Cannon
Knox McCoy
Tyler Tarver
Leanne Shirtliffe
Scott Moore

vs.

Team Rob:
Jon Acuff
Tyler Stanton
Bryan Allain
Scott Williams
Steven Furtick

Team Ricky came out blazing. Multiple people on his team tweeted and then blogged about the competition. It was close at first but then Team Rob started getting monkey stomped. Something happened that I did not expect. My own friends voted against my team. They said things like "your team is the New York Yankees of blogging teams." I also heard "your team is a powerhouse so I voted for the underdog...twice." Granted Ricky's write up was a wee bit better than Team Rob's I didn't see my own friends voting against me. And then...

Jon Acuff tweeted the following, "Whoa, someone made me into a comic book superhero. Apparently my secret power is "Deep V necks." Check it." Game over. One tweet from Jon = more hits on my blog than I get in a single week. The All-Star challenge post received 123 comments. The final vote was Team Ricky - 193 votes to Team Rob - 316. Jon Accuff for the win.

I can't wait to do this challenge again. I'm not sure what Ricky Anderson has up his sleeve but he tweeted that he's ready and that I could even have Jon Acuff again. Game on.

Now what really spurred this little recap is the fact that I got to meet a lot of new blogging friends. One of those is Tor Constantino. Tor emailed me a ha-larious video that he put together in honor of the All-Star Challenge. It made me laugh out loud multiple times. I hope you enjoy it as much as I did.

The Un-Official Blogging All-Star Challenge Video
by: torcon

Tor Constantino is a former journalist who has worked for CBS Radio Network and Clear Channel Communications. He posts regularly at his blog http://www.thedailyretort.com/ and to you can follow him on Twitter @torcon.