The COVID-19 Devotionals | Day 8

Today’s entry in the The COVID-19 Devotionals is a little late. While Terri worked from home today, I made several trips to the local grocery stores hunting down water, paper towels, and the typical daily necessities. I don’t recall ever going to a store and not finding staples and I’ve been walking the Planet Earth awhile. Crazy times.

Dad would have celebrated his 85th birthday today. Hard to believe he’s been gone 12 years. I miss my Dad, which is saying something. He and I didn’t always get along or have the best relationship. But that’s in the past. Today, I’d love to spend time with him talking about barbecue, smoking a brisket, frying fish, or making his homemade chili. Food is one thing we both shared a passion for even though he didn’t really understand why I wanted to work in the food business. Yet, somehow I spent nearly half my life in working various roles in various establishments. The big chunk of my life was spent in helping build Babe’s Chicken Dinner House into a local staple.

Seeing the restaurant industry decimated by the impact of COVID-19 hurts my heart deeply.  A lot of people I love deeply are still in the business and the thought of what they are going through pains me greatly. We’ve really grown to take food for granted in our culture even though about 37 million Americans are food insecure. Who would have imagined a few months ago that we wouldn’t be able to go out to eat in our favorite restaurant or readily pick up the things we want at the grocery store? It’s mind boggling.

For the foreseeable future, Tuesday is Take Out Tuesday.#TakeOutTuesday

Early this morning, while catching up on the latest virus news, Terri and I caught a story on our new favorite local barbecue joint, Smokey John’s. While we weren’t sure what Tuesday had in store for us, we did know where we were having dinner. Fox 4 sports personalities Mike Doocy and Sam Gannon did a great piece on Smokey John’s.

Food connects us. The DFW restaurant scene is vibrant and competitive. If you can cook it, you can find it here. The people that run, operate, and fuel this industry locally are resilient. Many of them I know are people of faith. They love food. They love people.

Our restaurant friends need our help. They won’t survive this storm without us. You gotta eat. So help them out by ordering food to go or for delivery from them throughout this nightmare we’re all experiencing collectively. One day, we’ll look back and see this enemy in our rear view mirror. We need to do our part to defeat it and to rise up after it. Together, we can.

By the way, our Smokey John’s dinner was delicious! Check ’em out. They are great folks who do a fantastic job day in, day out. And their food rocks!

Be well.

The Devotional Guy™

#TakeOutTuesday

If you enjoyed reading this post or if it resonated with you somehow please be hit the “like” button or leave a comment in the “comments” section. I’d love to hear from you!