Back in 2019, there was a battle you won’t read about in any American history textbooks. It was the battle of the best chicken sandwich. The fast food restaurant, Popeyes, introduced a chicken sandwich to rival Chick-Fil-A and other similar fast food establishments. (Side note: I just found out that there’s no apostrophe in the name Popeyes. According to my research, restaurant founder Alvin Copeland said he was too poor to afford that little punctuation mark to make the name possessive. I think he was kidding. I also found out that the name originally didn’t have anything to do with the cartoon muscle-man Popeye the Sailor Man. I guess that tracks since I don’t remember canned spinach on their menu, and we all know that was Popeye’s secret weapon.)

With a well-placed tweet campaign, the chicken sandwich went viral, leading Popeyes to boast an increase of 103% in traffic in the days after the sandwich was first advertised. Many locations would sell out before all of the customers in the long lines could receive their orders. There was even a report about a man in Maryland who was stabbed to death in an altercation about line-cutting in those crazy late summer, chicken sandwich days of 2019.

Driving down Memorial Boulevard back then, I witnessed those long lines for the Popeyes drive-thru, but I was too cynical to believe a sandwich was worth that kind of wait, so I drove on. I’m not saying that makes me smarter than the customers who waited for the chicken, but I am less fun in that respect. I’m assuming they were probably just hopping onto a mostly harmless viral trend. I doubt any of them were really expecting that sandwich to change their lives. Years later, we’ve all moved on to other fads and celebrity influencers, and there will be more to come in the future, but I start to wonder if I’m willing to pursue anything with that type of dogged enthusiasm. Where am I going to plant my feet and stick my flag in the ground, saying This is of utmost importance to me?

The word seek is used 143 times in the NIV Bible, such as in Psalm 34:14, “Turn from evil and do good; seek peace and pursue it.” That sounds like my call to action, but how do I know which way to go? With Isaiah 5:20-21 rolling around in my head, I know I can’t just go running in any old direction following any fool with the loudest voice and best soundbites. The Lord told Isaiah, “Woe to those who call evil good and good evil, who put darkness for light and light for darkness, who put bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter. Woe to those who are wise in their own eyes and clever in their own sight.” And to balance out all that running around, we see that wait is mentioned 129 times, like Psalm 27:14, “Wait for the Lord; be strong and take heart and wait for the Lord.”

So how can I be sure what I’m pursuing and waiting for is really worth it? Wealth, attention, comforts, my physical body—all of this will fade away. Although the temporary pleasures of this world can be a blessing, my #1 pursuit should last longer than a chicken sandwich. Isaiah 40 tells us: “All people are like grass, and all their faithfulness is like the flowers of the field…The grass withers and the flowers fall, but the word of our God endures forever.” This is it! Something that lasts forever and comes from a Father who puts the apostrophe-s before my name.