I once heard a story about a man being passed by a chicken while driving fifty-five miles an hour down a country road. Impressed by such a freakish, fleet-footed creature, the man leaned forward on his steering wheel to take a second glance. To his amazement, the chicken appeared to have three legs!
The man was intrigued. He couldn’t resist accelerating into the cloud of dust forming behind the rogue, rapscallion of a rooster. As the grill of his truck began to teeter on the edge of touching the rooster’s tailfeathers, it suddenly bolted down a driveway and straight into a barn. The man pulled up to the farmhouse and headed for the farmer fixing his tractor in the front yard.
He said, “Excuse me, sir. Do you know that there is a three-legged chicken that runs over sixty miles an hour roosting in your barn?” The farmer replied, “Well, I reckon’ I do mister. I breed ‘em that way.” Confused by the farmer’s remarks he said, “What in the world inspired you to do that?” The farmer said, “Well, mister, me and my wife and my son are always fightin’ over the drumsticks come supper. So, I figured it’d be best to have one for the each of us.” Impressed by the farmer’s sensible, entrepreneurial logic, the man asked, “Well, how do they taste?” The farmer replied, “I don’t rightly know, I ain’t been able to catch one yet.”
My rendition of that story is derived from a speech given by President Ronald Reagan. I borrowed the punchline because I think it’s allegorical of our culture; that is, we all have moral cravings and keep trying to invent the ideal, sacrilegious morsel—yet it remains elusive. And the more we try to appease the nation’s idolatrous appetite, the greater is our moral malnourishment. Additionally, I mention Reagan because of his boasted slogan, “Let’s make America great again.” A familiar jingle that continues to win the hearts and minds of proud, patriotic Americans.
But what does it mean today? Shouldn’t the words “make”and “great” rouse concern? Wasn’t this country made to avoid great government?I don’t know what you think about all the bureaucratic swank informing America, but I know what God thinks— “Do not boast about tomorrow, for you do not know what a day may bring forth” (Proverbs 27:1, NASB). And God says, “‘Let not a wise man boast of his wisdom, and let not the mighty man boast of his might, let not a rich man boast of his riches’” (Jeremiah 9:23). Those are two fundamental virtues of life: (1) don’t make presumptuous statements and (2) be humble.
To be clear, Christendom isn’t America and America isn’t Christendom. But why not implement the good truth of Scripture? Why isn’t the Bible satisfying? Because the reality is we’ve abandoned God, and we abhor Him. Instead of wisely bowing before Christ, we witlessly bow before men. Men who have solutions analogous to three-legged chickens. In the end, we’re nothing more than proud, postmodern Pharisees at heart.
That is why pride is so precarious. Pride thrives on our exaggerated, egotistical, sinful, self-esteem. We might even imagine the proud Pharisees chanting, “Make Israel great again.” But consider the words of Jesus after He had dumfounded those proud citizens of Israel with their own doctrine:
“The scribes and Pharisees have seated themselves in the chair of Moses; therefore, all that they tell you, do and observe, but do not do according to their deeds; for they say things and do not do them. They tie up heavy burdens and lay them on men’s shoulders, but they themselves are unwilling to move them with so much as a finger. But they do all their deeds to be noticed by men” (Matthew 23:2-5a).
Will you wear the robe of honor or hypocrisy? Want to make America great? Then make America humble. It takes humility to be honorable and courage to protect the Constitution. So, let’s not forget that we are the home of the brave—not the home of the bullies.
“Whoever exalts himself shall be humbled; and whoever humbles himself shall be exalted” (Matthew 23:12).
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