In times past, one of my favorite things for breakfast, especially when traveling, was a Chick-Fil-A chicken biscuit. Being the dieter I always was, I would add extra butter, large iced tea, and be on my way. I have always been a little perturbed when on Sunday they were closed, until I paused and thought … it is Sunday. Good for them, and it sure has hurt their business being closed that one special day of rest. I have also admired their hiring young people, giving them a chance, and challenging them with rewards of scholarships for going the extra mile.
Charlie sent me this article last week (we edited it to keep it short) describing an incident when travelers found themselves caught in the snow, ice, without food and gas, and without the comforts we all take for granted these days. This depicts the heart and soul of this company. I am proud to be a customer.
During the recent storm that crossed the southern states that caused the traffic in the cities to stop dead in its tracks, a good number of those stranded motorists were able to find shelter in the storm thanks to the kindness and generosity of Chick-fil-A restaurant employees and the restaurant’s owner, Mark Meadows in Birmingham.
Once the snow started accumulating, Meadows closed the restaurant and sent his staff home. But a few hours later, many of them returned – unable to get to their homes.
“Our store is about a mile and a half from the interstate and it took me two hours to get there,” manager Audrey Pitt told me. “It was a parking lot as far as I could see.”
So Audrey left her car on the side of the interstate and joined a flock of bundled up drivers trudging through the snow. “At one point there were more people walking than driving,” she said. Some of the drivers had been stuck in their cars for nearly seven hours without any food or water. So the staff of the Chick-fil-A decided to lend a helping hand. “We cooked several hundred sandwiches and stood out on both sides of 280 and handed out the sandwiches to anyone we could get to – as long as we had food to give out.”
The staffers braved the falling snow and ice, slipping and sliding, as they offered hot juicy chicken breasts tucked between two buttered buns. And Chick-fil-A refused to take a single penny for their sandwiches. The meal was a gift – no strings attached. For the frozen drivers, it was manna from heaven. “They were very excited and extremely thankful,” she said. “People were thankful to get something to put in their stomachs.”
“This company is based on taking care of people and loving people before you’re worried about money or profit,” Audrey told me. “We were just trying to follow the model that we’ve all worked under for so long and the model that we’ve come to love. There was really nothing else we could have done but try to help people any way we could.”
“We’re not open for business, ‘We’re just feeding people who are hungry.”
“For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat,” Jesus said in the Gospel of Matthew. “I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in.”
It was a Sunday school lesson illustrated on a snowy winter day along Highway 280 in Alabama with a chicken sandwich and a side of waffle fries.
Our Big God wants us to do Big things for Him, whether it is with big crowds, small crowds, or with a big company whose heart is living the gospel. BIG … Being Involved with the Gospel.