Where's the Beef

Raise your hand if you remember the Wendy’s restaurant burger chain’s advertising campaign “Where’s the Beef”?   In 1984 “Where’s the Beef” was an attention-grabbing marketing campaign in which an octogenarian grandmotherly type bellyached about the stingy amount of meat on her sandwich.  Actress Clara Peller in a TV commercial looked despairingly at the hamburger she ordered, doesn’t see the full meat patty and asked the counter person, “Where’s the Beef”?  The commercial spot became famous.  Fact is, we were red-blooded Americans and, by Gosh, proud and vigorous, with a hearty appetite for red blooded all American beef!  Clara Peller tugged at the hearts and souls of all Americans, tugging for something fundamental in the American psyche and diet; good old USA prime USDA approved beef and she wanted what she paid for.  Perhaps, she felt beef really lies at the heart of our cuisine.  Would that wash today?  Not sure.  Other countries including our own make do with appetites of fish, rice, vegetable stir-fry, snakes, insects, organs of a variety of animals and many other food sources.  Gulp!

Where's the Beef?

So where is the beef?  Some of it is still on the cows in the field, some is hanging in the slaughterhouses, some is in your grocery, some is in your freezer, and some is in millions of restaurants.  The meat of the matter today goes deeper than a mere beef patty.  Shouldn’t we ask “Where’s the Beef” when we see our very own government politicians serving us gross deception?  Shouldn’t we question the practices of big government, the IRS, NSA, foreign embassy destruction, loss of human life, drone surveillance, trying to by-pass our Constitution, the list is in-depth, on-going and extremely dangerous.  When the Supremist Court gives us legalized abortion without showing any precedent, we should call out, “Where’s the Wisdom”?  When our leaders serve up same-sex marriages in highly public venues shouldn’t we call out “Where’s the Leadership”?  When Congress gives monies to farmers—not to grow crops—we should call out “Where’s the Money”?  When our leaders blatantly deceive us with untruths on national TV about what’s best for us medically, shouldn’t we call out “Where’s the Truth”? 

Didn’t we get a warning?  Isaiah said in 5:20, “Woe to those who call evil good and good evil, who put darkness for light.”  C’mon people, when we do not carefully observe the distinction between good and evil, destruction soon follows.  It is easy for people to say, “No one can decide for anyone else what is really right or wrong”.  They may think getting drunk can’t hurt them, that it cannot cause a car accident and kill others, extramarital sex and affairs isn’t really wrong and doesn’t break up families and hurt children, or that money doesn’t control them.  Are you kidding me?  Are you kidding yourself?  When we make excuses for our actions, we break down the distinction between right and wrong.  If we do not take God’s Word, the Bible, as our standard, soon all moral choices will appear fuzzy.  Without God we are headed for a breakdown, disaster and much suffering.  Clara knew beef, do we?  The beef, the truth, is in Isaiah 9:16 “Those who guide the people mislead them, and those who listen are guided astray.”  Need something stronger?  "For our offenses are many in your sight, and our sins testify against us. Our offenses are ever with us, and we acknowledge our iniquities: rebellion and treachery against the LORD, turning our backs on our God, inciting revolt and oppression, uttering lies our hearts have conceived. So justice is driven back, and righteousness stands at a distance; truth has stumbled in the streets, honesty cannot enter. Truth is nowhere to be found, and whoever shuns evil becomes a prey. The LORD looked and was displeased that there was no justice." Isaiah 59:12-15 What would he think today?

Bottom Line

Isaiah said, “Truth has stumbled in the streets.”  It’s lying out there in the street people, in front of your houses, apartments, condos, townhouses, mansions, churches, synagogues and everywhere.  Get up, go out, pick it up and use it.  Clara Peller died in 1987 but her “Where’s the Beef” stuck around.  I’m convinced that if she were alive today, made an ad campaign for the Bible, and just dropped the “W” and went with “Here’s the Beef” she could have hit pay dirt again.