Leave it to the imagination of advertising geniuses to taint an important spiritual message from a morning devotional by distracting me with the tagline “Where’s the Beef?” from a 1984 Wendy’s commercial. If you weren’t of age (or born) to see the original airings, welcome to the wonderful world of the internet, where everything is available, no matter how ancient it may be! For the students in my sports marketing or nutrition classes, they are bestowed the honor of enlightenment to these classics as we discuss the role of marketing campaigns in influencing consumer behavior. The 1996 Snicker’s ad with the catchphrase “Great, googly moogly” ranks fairly high for best ads in Julie’s record book along with the current campaign “Don’t be your parents” by Progressive Insurance. However, Our Daily Bread author Marvin Williams’ thoughts were traveling a slightly different route than sports commercials when he mentioned the phrase “squash the beef.”

Williams shares a story of two Canadian football players who had a “beef/grudge/feud” with each other for nearly fifty years and the crowd attending a promotional event encouraging them to let it go already—to “squash the beef.” Providing examples from Scripture, Williams explains that “beefing” has been an issue since the beginning of time; however, we have the ability to choose whether to continue “beefing” or holding grudges against others. “Not only does the Bible give us several examples of people who held grudges, but it also instructs us on how to “squash the beef”—how to seek forgiveness and reconciliation. God calls us to love others (Leviticus 19:18), pray for and forgive those who insult and injure us (Matthew 5:43–47), live peaceably with all people, leave revenge to God, and overcome evil with good (Romans 12:18–21).”

Mirroring Williams’ guidance to identify “Where’s the Beef?” and seek reconciliation, Ken Sande provides an approach to resolving conflict in his book The Peacemaker that he calls the “Four Gs”—glorify God; get the log out of your own eye; gently restore; and go and be reconciled. According to Sande, “…none of us is naturally inclined to obey Jesus’ commands to love our enemies, confess our wrongs, gently correct others, submit to our church, and forgive those who hurt us. In fact, left to our own instincts, we are disposed to do just the opposite…[but] Through the gospel, the foundational G, the Lord enables us to live out the Four G’s of peacemaking.”

Reading wisely challenging words like those from Williams and Sande, I am forced to turn the query Where’s the Beef? inward. Who have I offended, mistreated, or neglected in some way? Do I have Blind Spots that prevent me from being aware of obstacles that are preventing a healthy relationship with the people in my life? In situations of conflict, in moments when I might have a tendency to hold a grudge, I would pray that my Tuesday People would lovingly hold me accountable and encourage me to live out the Four G’s of peacemaking; to ask myself the hard questions so that a resolution can be achieved.

If I claim a desire to build Relational Equity with others both personally and professionally, while encouraging our students to do the same, then at some point, there is certain to be conflict. We are human beings. How I respond to that conflict should be a reflection of the Christ I made a decision to follow. In their chapter on reconciliation and amending in the book entitled Recovering Redemption, Matt Chandler and Michael Snetzer acknowledge three specific steps we can take: “(1) We can own it…with the gospel at our back, we can own every bit of whatever we did, taking full responsibility for it; (2) We can avoid all accusations…’You started it’…may we come to these interactions saying, ‘I’m not accusing you of anything or asking you for anything except your forgiveness.’ That’s is. Case closed;’ and (3) We can make no excuses…we specifically name what we’ve done, we acknowledge the pain and difficulty we’ve introduced into their lives, and we leave the ball tenderly in their court.”

So, Where’s the Beef? in your life? Is there a situation that needs to be resolved, forgiveness offered, and fences mended? Is God asking us to “squash the beef,” to release the grudge we may have Clenched Fists around? If you have experienced reconciliation in your life, please consider sharing suggestions for all of us in the comments below.

References:

Arnold Worldwide. (2021). Progressive Insurance. [Television commercial]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-CHD7ihW-9s

Chandler, M. & Snetzer, M. (2014). Recovering redemption: A gospel-saturated perspective on how to change. B&H Publishing.

Mars, Incorporated. (1996). Snicker’s Super Bowl. [Television commercial]. Retrieved from https://www.imdb.com/title/tt10918948/

Sande, K. (2004). The peacemaker. [Kindle version]. Baker Books.

Sedelmaier, J. (1984). Wendy’s Where’s the Beef? [Television commercial]. Retrieved from https://www.imdb.com/title/tt10918948/

Williams, M. (2022, January 27). “Not Holding Grudges.” Our Daily Bread. Retrieved from https://odb.org/US/2022/01/27/squash-the-beef