You can’t call it chicken pot pie unless it contains chicken

I have always enjoyed the old joke about the fellow who got into trouble for adding horse meat to the chicken pot pie in his restaurant.

The judge asked him how much horse meat he used.

“I always keep the ratio at 50-50,” the fellow said.

The judge let the fellow off easy, ordering him only to post a sign letting customers know horse meat is one of the ingredients in the chicken pot pie.

Afterward, the fellow’s lawyer asked: “Tell me the truth, how much horse meat do you really put in your chicken pot pie?”

“Seriously,” the fellow said, “I always keep the ratio at 50-50, one horse to one chicken.”

In a figurative sense, people are being fed all kinds of things these days, and there’s no signs posted to warn us about it. That’s especially true when it comes to information we get through our social media platforms, from the proliferation of quasi news sources filling the airwaves with misinformation and half-truths, and in the barrage of advertisements coming at us all day every day.

In this day and time, we need wisdom to ferret through the deluge of information. The Bible tells us where to get wisdom:

“If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God … and it shall be given him” (James 1:5). That same verse says, if we ask for wisdom, God doesn’t give just enough to squeak by but He provides an abundant supply.

I love reading about what God did for Solomon when he asked for wisdom.

“God said unto him, because thou hath asked this thing and hath not asked for thyself long life; neither hast asked for riches ror thyself, nor hast asked the life of thine enemies; but hast asked for thyself understanding to discern judgment; behold, I have done according to thy words: lo, I have given thee a wise and understanding heart; so that there was none like thee before thee, neither after thee shall any arise like unto thee. And I have also given thee that which thou hath not asked, both riches and honor, so that there shall not be any among the kings like unto thee all thy days.”

So, you see, God blessed Solomon and made him a one of a kind so that he could be a witness to his people and to all the nations around him of just how good God is to His people. You realize God has done the same for you. There’s not another person exactly like you in the all the world. The Lord made you the way you are so that you, like Solomon, can be a witness to those around you of the goodness of God.

We don’t need to concoct some strange recipe like the fellow making chicken pot pies with horse meat. We only need to make use of all the ingredients the Lord puts into his followers: love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness and temperance.”

Those fruits of the Spirit are the ingredients that make Christians so pleasing to those around them.

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