“For I was hungry, and you gave Me something to eat..."

According to Fox News, a local Chick-Fil-A came to the rescue as a rare snowstorm in the South left citizens stranded on icy interstates and highways, including Highway 280 in Birmingham, Alabama.  Thanks to the kindness and generosity of the restaurant employees and owner, Mark Meadows, a good number of stranded motorists were able to find food and shelter from the storm.

Meadows closed the restaurant and sent his staff home when the snow started to accumulate, but a few hours later, many returned to the restaurant, unable to get home due to the weather and road conditions.  Audrey Pitt, store manager recounts her experience, “Our store is about a mile and a half from the interstate and it took me two hours to get there.  It was a parking lot as far as I could see.”  Due to the conditions, Audrey decided to leave her car on the side of the interstate and joined the bundled up drivers trudging through the snow on foot.  Describing the scene, she said, “At one point there were more people walking than driving.”

The staff of the Chick-fil-A, a company founded on Christian principles, decided to lend a helping hand to the drivers – some of which had been stuck in their cars for almost seven hours without food or water.
The stranded employees that had returned to the restaurant cooked several hundred sandwiches and stood out on both sides of Highway 280 and handed out the sandwiches to anyone they could get to, slipping and sliding as they braved the falling snow and ice.  The best part – the meal was a gift and Chick-Fil-A refused to take a single penny for the sandwiches.
Stranded drivers were surprised by the free sandwiches and grateful for the hot meal.  Why didn’t Chick-Fil-A choose to make some extra money during the storm? They had a captive crowd of customers, unable to go to another restaurant, so why did they choose to give the food away?  Audrey explained, “This company is based on taking care of people and loving people before you’re worried about money or profit.  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.”

Chick-Fil-A’s generosity didn’t stop there.  After delivering the food and even helping drivers maneuver along the icy road by pushing a car up an incline, the owner and staff took it one step further and opened up their dining room to anyone who wanted to sleep on a bench or a booth.  This morning, the weary staff members fired up their ovens once again and began preparing chicken biscuits. The only thing that Chick-Fil-A has closed is its cash register, giving the stranded motorists another free meal.
Chick-Fil-A played out the biblical values they were once fiercely criticized for following.

Matthew 25:35 “For I was hungry, and you gave Me something to eat; I was thirsty, and you gave Me something to drink; I was a stranger, and you invited Me in…”

Will this example of Christian values receive the same publicity as the others Chick-Fil-A once verbalized? Unfortunately, it’s doubtful, but for whatever it is worth, we applauds Chick-Fil-A for their ongoing demonstration of Christian values. 

Freedom of Speech

In case you haven't noticed, our First Amendment rights are constantly under attack.  Mine were attacked last week, when I posted this following video to YouTube.  I'd been shopping at Kohl's the week before, and noticed the "Duck Dynasty" bobbleheads.  I played with them, and they all spoke.  Then the Phil Robertson controversy broke, and he was fired for speaking his mind.  I found myself at Kohl's again shortly after this, and all of the Duck Dynasty dolls had been silenced.  Just like Phil himself.  I took the video, posted it to YouTube, and found it has been silenced as well!  What is this world coming to???

Auld Lang Syne

Sad to note the passing of the "World's Oldest Teenager", Dick Clark.  New Year's Eve will never be the same.

All Pets Go To Heaven

In the wee hours of the morning on March 7th, as promised, Google, the new owners of Slide, Inc., removed the popular website SuperPokePets, in the process killing millions of beloved virtual pets.  For those of us who  spent many hours devoted to this fun little game, our lives will never be the same.

Farewell, Kid

Gary Carter, the slugging catcher known as Kid for the sheer joy he took in playing baseball, who entered the Hall of Fame as a Montreal Expo but who most famously helped propel the Mets to their dramatic 1986 World Series championship, died this afternoon in West Palm Beach, Florida. He was 57.

It drove some people nuts that Carter played every day with the joy as if it were the opening day of Little League. Even that nickname, "Kid," was minted with some derisiveness by jaded Expos veterans when Carter, in his first spring training camp in 1973, had the nerve to run hard on every sprint and bring enthusiasm to every drill.

In his 1987 book, A Dream Season, written with John Hough Jr., Carter wrote, "My enthusiasm for my family -- and for baseball, and other things, too -- strikes some people as a bit too much. My happiness crowds people a little."

Some Expos were put off by Carter's unabashed enthusiasm. They felt he was obsessed with his image and basked in hus press coverage too eagerly. They called him Camera Carter.

Carter's exuberance complemented his prowess at the plate. Curly-haired and with a ready smile, he was loved by the fans, first in Montreal, then in New York.

The light that was Gary Edmund Carter has been extinguished. Kid is dead, and far too soon at age 57 because of the evil of inoperable brain tumors. This world, not just this little game, is less sunny without him.

Happy Valentine's Day!

Questions without answers...

With all of the national attention this story is getting, I don't need to write here any of the horrific details. Surely, someone cowardly enough to take their own life, and the lives of their 2 children, will get their reward. And we may never know the whereabouts of Susan Powell...

Almost a week has passed since I read the news reports coming out of Washington, and despite all of the hatred and blame game, I believe there was still the tiniest spark of human compassion alive in Josh Powell. People say it was all about him. If that's true, why donate toys and clothing to charity? If he was nothing but a cold-blooded killer, why spare the life of the social worker? Or is he just playing mind games with me from beyond the grave???