Christmas is just a couple of days away and my wife was busy last night doing her "crafty" stuff. For those of you that don't know her, she's a talented artist and enjoys making hand-painted items. One of the things she was working on last night was a picture frame she had purchased for her sister (shhhh...don't tell her). It has little roosters around the border and her sister collects chicken chatzkes (did I spell that right?) stuff with chickens on it. She wanted to make it special and so she asked me to get on the Internet and see if I could find any "chicken quotes" that she could use to create something caligraphic to put in the frame.
Most of the quotes I found were old "why did the chicken cross the road" jokes, and there were even a few porn sites that Google suggested when I searched for "chicken quotes"...what's with that, people get excited looking at plucked chickens?. Anyway, one of the quotes caught my attention. It's attributed to Martina Navratalova, the tennis player:
"The difference between involvement and commitment is like ham and eggs. The chicken is involved; the pig is committed. "
That's a really funny quote to me, but if you think about it long enough you realize it's kind of significant as well. I got to thinking, "Am I a chicken, or am I a pig?" I guess a lot of the time, I'm just a chicken. Not in the frightened sense, but in the sense that I just get marginally involved with some things. I help out, I lend a hand, but I'm not really totally committed. I don't give it my all. I leave some dry crusts and move on. I suppose we all are like that with some things, with life as hectic as it is these days, there's not enough time to make a full committment to every little thing.
When it comes to spiritual things, I need to be more piggy. I think I am committed to what and who I believe in. I don't think that I just give it lip service, but sometimes I wonder if I'm as truly, deeply and totally committed as some of my brothers and sisters around me.
The things of the world sometimes intrude in my life when I try to be "churchy." I find myself distracted and pulled away to do inconsequential things when I should be praying or studying my Bible. Some of the things, like the fixing other people's computer problems, I look at as a part of my ministry...helping other people. I enjoy doing it, but is it really committment or is it just window dressing? I sometimes wonder, am I truly committed or am I just playing the game? Is it like that for you? I wonder.
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4 comments:
See! You CAN have thought provoking ideas/thoughts and blog about them. You told me at homegroups that it was hard for you to do that but, I'm here to tell you that you have done an excellent job.
You now have my unofficial OK and can now be added as one of my links on my own personal blog. ;) (see my comment to your first post)
I've found that blogging my feelings about spiritual involvement has been an excellent way for God to speak to me and through me. Sometimes, I feel as though I've sat down at the computer to blog to the world but get up from the blogging experience to feel as though I've just had a wonderful conversation with the Almighty God.
I'll link to you, Al. But then, I'll link to anything.
Thanks Jason, I'd hate to be a missing link :P
Al - great illustration, and very heartfelt. Thanks for the challenge, and yes I think we all can identify with you on this.
By the way - thanks for all the ways you serve the Lord -- and us.
EGG-cellent Post - I truely HAM sorry for that cheap play on words.
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