Tastes Like Chicken

Dear friends, let us continue to love one another, for love comes from God. Anyone who loves is a child of God and knows God. But anyone who does not love does not know God, for God is love. 1 John 4:7-8 (NLT)

It happened at elementary summer camp, and it happened fast. In fact, I was smitten with just one glance. My cousin Jeff and I were in Wisconsin for the week, and we had unwittingly become the recipients of some female attention. It was two cute girls from the cabin over the hill.

Our relationships lasted one short week, and while we never actually talked to the objects of our affection, the emotions I experienced are still branded in my mind. Mostly what I remember are a lot of feelings of embarrassment and failure. It was an elementary nightmare; a juvenile communication wash-out.

I do remember my cousin and me hounding each other more than daily to start a conversation with the girls. Our conversations went something like this:

“Go talk to her.”
“No, you go talk to her.”
“Ok, you go on over there, and I’ll be right behind you.”
“No, you go first!”

And so it went on an on throughout the week. We must have called each other chicken a thousand times that week.

I now know that when “love” tastes like chicken, it’s not love at all but rather infatuation or some such notion. How different our understanding of love is in adulthood than in childhood!

Infatuation runs when things get dicey, but love has staying power. Love pushes through the hard times, the sad times, and the times when the light at the end of the tunnel is imperceptible. Real love communicates, even when it’s uncomfortable or scary.

Real love never tastes like chicken.

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