Beware of Your Appetites
I had never been to Cleveland in my life. In fact, prior to my career in marketing, I hadn’t really been very many places north of the Mason-Dixon line as best I recall. Most states between California and Virginia and below had been blessed with my presence, but I had yet to see the shores of Lake Erie, especially not from a plane. It was a new experience for certain, especially since our team from work was going to visit one of our largest customers.
Little did I know that on that trip I’d be eating goat meat prior to flying the friendly skies back to Arkansas. Isn’t that a turn of events? You’d think people would be coming to Arkansas to eat goats, not the opposite.
My work expertise at that time was on the technical side of things. I had been working for a local manufacturer of electric motors for about seventeen years and prior to my career move to marketing, my background was in computer aided design in the Engineering department. Needless to say, although I was as green as grass in the field of marketing, I did know a thing or two about the inner workings of our products.
Our team, led by our vice-president of marketing, had set out to present information to several of our largest customers about new government regulations that would change the mix of products that we would be bringing to the marketplace. In addition to our VP leading the discussion, others were along for the ride who could speak to the technical inner-workings of our order systems and how all this would affect the customer’s path forward. My portion of the presentation was to discuss our detailed plans to phase out old products and replace them with newer designs.
Our customer was very receptive as we presented the information, making the meeting a success. After the meeting concluded, our vice-president wanted to take us out to celebrate before our trip home the next day. So, after our day of work we met back at the hotel and then headed to dinner in downtown Cleveland. That was quite a new experience for me, dining in a fancy restaurant in a major city far from home.
As we arrived at the fine dining establishment and settled in, the waiter came to our table and took our drink orders. He then proceeded to tell us with over-the-top passion, his ethnicity thickly accented in his voice, about the specials for the evening. The level of hospitality and excitement about the meals made you lick your lips with each entrée mentioned. While I don’t remember all the meals mentioned, the two choices that stood out to me was suckling pig and roasted baby goat.
Most of our party stuck with something along the lines of normal, but one of my fellow comrades ordered the suckling pig. When I heard him order, that fanned the flames of my bravery, so I ordered the roasted baby goat. I just couldn’t resist the waiter and how he rolled his “r” when he said “roasted baby goat.” That sounded fascinating to me. I ordered it.
My boss ordered a round of drinks, not even expecting any of us to turn down what was likely some high-priced liquor. As the drinks came around, that was one of the early opportunities in my marketing career to tell them “No thanks,” as I had made a decision early in my adult life to abstain from alcohol. A toast was made to our success, and I joined in with my glass of water.
While some of the appetites at the table included fancy fire water, I was anxious to get my hands on that goat. Sitting there, I was imagining someone out back in the alley taking delivery of a small farm animal on my behalf. Soon enough, after some had enjoyed salads and appetizers, the main course arrived!
I have to say, that was the best goat meat I had ever eaten in my entire life. Oh, and by the way, it is the only goat meat I had ever eaten in my entire life. It was, in fact, quite luscious, cooked to perfection. I left that restaurant that night with a taste for goat in my mouth, an appetite for something new that would affect the course of events moving forward.
It literally took the better part of the next decade, but eventually, the Lord impressed upon us to sell our house and move to the country. Once arriving in the country, we set out to teach our kids the fine art of raising farm animals. Over the course of several years, we tried everything imaginable including chickens, ducks, pigs, a bottle calf and more. Care to take a guess as to which farm animal I chose? You guessed it – goats!
Yes, when we arrived in the country on our little ten-acre farm, I could envision our place teeming with goats, not only to clean up the overgrown mess we had acquired, but to breed and grow them for meat on the table. I had never known anyone in all my years who had eaten goat meat, but I was on a mission to make that happen for us. I don’t think the rest of my family shared my passion, but they hadn’t been given the appetite like I had, so they just didn’t know what they were missing.
Years passed. Goats were born, goats died, then born, then died. In the many years since our arrival to the country I had set out to create a goat-breeding paradise in hopes of putting some of that luscious meat into my stomach once again. But my appetite, my longing for that savory taste in my mouth was never satisfied. After heavy losses due to parasites and some hard winters, I determined it was time to put the goat-meat idea out to pasture. We sold our little goat herd and began raising sheep instead.
But, our dream of raising our own meat hadn’t died when the goats left the property. In fact, our conversion to raising sheep, along with persistence, patience and learning how to shepherd has thankfully resulted in food for our freezer. At the end of our seventh year on our farm I was proud to have been able to taste the fruits, or meat, of our labor.
A passage in the book of Proverbs says, “When you sit down to eat with a ruler, consider carefully what is before you; and put a knife to your throat if you are a man given to appetite. Do not desire his delicacies, for they are deceptive food.” Proverbs 23:1-3
While that picture from Proverbs points to the physical appetite, what it really means is to beware of life’s appetites, whatever they may be for you personally. Once a person sets their heart and mind on the appetites of the flesh, they can be persuaded to do things they would normally not do.
Beware of your appetites. It may lead you to raising goats, or something much worse.