Today we complain about violence in television and movies. Actually this generation hasn’t seen anything compared to some of the things I saw in my childhood.

For instance, my Mamaw Deloney used to let her chickens range freely behind her house in the country. But often, when grandsons started to get hungry, she’d go out back and summon her flock. She was sneaky. She’d throw out some grains of corn calling sweetly, “Here chick, chick, chick!”

And they came running—like a bunch of dumb chickens. I knew what was going to happen, and they should have had this scene branded in their little numbskulls because they had seen it many times. But like a school of minnows swimming happily into the open mouth of a black bass, their little airhead could think of nothing but “corn, corn, corn!”

I guess anything is a welcome change from worms and grasshoppers.

And mamaw would wait until they were busily pecking away, their stomachs in chicken heaven, when suddenly she struck. Grabbing an unsuspecting victim by the neck she lifted and twisted, snapped and—really I don’t know how she did it, but she was good.

Voilence! My friend you should have seen it. Mamaw standing there with a dumb chicken head in her hand, and the chicken’s body on the ground, flopping around like a … well, like a chicken with his head cut off.

It’s enough to damage the psyche of a kid but I quickly got over it when the results of her labors was fried, and lounging next to some mashed potatoes and gravy. She topped the meal off with a healthy slice of apple pie. Colonel Sanders should have taken lessons from mamaw when it came to frying poultry.

Probably one of the keys is to start with biologic, worm-fed, chickens.

I thought about mamaw recently when my wife came home with a Christmas turkey which turned out to be a chicken. You should have seen it—9.33 pounds! Probably when it had all its feathers, claws and insides it was ten pounds or better. Being a chicken, its brain had probably only weighed 0.0001 pounds, though.

Can you imagine mamaw trying to wring the neck of a ten pound chicken? “Here, chick, chick, chick?” The ground trembles as the hefty pullet gallops toward the corn. Lesser men would have feared the hulking fowl.

Somehow, though, I think mamaw would have had the best of our feathered friend, though the ensuing battle would have been impressive to watch. She usually accomplished what she set out to do. She could even milk a cow. (She tried to teach me but I could never get those squirt things to work).

Violence against chickens. Sounds terrible but what else can you do with an animal that dumb, but eat it? Why in the world would they run after a few grains of corn when they had seen so many of their brothers and sisters flopping around, headless, in these same scenarios?

Honestly, though, there are a lot of people just as dumb as those chickens. They see others fall into sin and screw their life up, but them? They’re going to be the exception to the rule–they think. So they run into an adulterous affair, like our famous, salivating chickens running to the corn.

There’s something worse than mamaw waiting on them.

Others abuse their body, or lie, or cheat, or steal, or treat others without respect. They plant bitter, selfish seeds and expect to reap a good crop. “Here, chick, chick, chick!”

“Don’t be misled: No one makes a fool of God. What a person plants, he will harvest. The person who plants selfishness, ignoring the needs of others—ignoring God!—harvests a crop of weeds. All he’ll have to show for his life is weeds! But the one who plants in response to God, letting God’s Spirit do the growth work in him, harvests a crop of real life, eternal life.” (Galatians 6:7, 8, The Message)

“Therefore disaster will overtake him in an instant; he will suddenly be destroyed—without remedy.” (Proverbs 6:15, NIV). In others words, he’s going to get his neck wrung if he doesn’t straighten up.

The New Year is traditionally a great time to think about, and evaluate our lives. If there are areas where we are in open rebellion against God, we need to do more than make good resolutions–we need to change. We can, by the grace of the Lord Jesus and the power of His Spirit.

Real change only comes through Him.

Otherwise … “Here chick, chick, chick!”

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Hmmm…

You need to watch your media intake … one of the first ways people start stumbling is they start watching stuff and all of a sudden they become desensitized, like cuss words or nudity in a movie … the moment that stuff doesn’t shock you any more, you’re already in trouble. If people say, “I can watch the movie and not let that bother me,” you’re already in trouble if it doesn’t bother you.” Pastor Rick Warren.