Introduction

Is there any cuter commercial than the one for Wendy's with the old lady who asks a simple question: "Where's the beef?" Here she is with a couple of other ladies, and they're examining their hamburger. They look at the hamburger's large bun, and the lady who looks for more than just the obvious had a very penetrating question: "Where's the beef?" She wanted to know not where the externals were, but where was the internal, where was the thing that makes the burger talk? Where's the beef? That statement has become a favorite statement of politicians, of musicians, of all kinds of people, who, when they want to discuss the essence of a thing, the meat of a thing, the internal strength of a thing, will humorously ask the question, "Where's the beef?"

Most of us don't know it, and perhaps we've never asked it, but most people are asking that question about life: "Where's the beef?" They find themselves sandwiched between birth and death, and they expect that between birth and death, there should be some beef. The only problem is, in the middle of life they look up, and they're asking the question, "Where's the beef?" People are struggling to survive, struggling to find life, struggling to find identity, struggling to find meaning, and when you break it all down, the Wendy's lady was correct in the question of life: Where's the beef?

We want to know where the beef is, too.

It was that question that the son responded to when the father came to him and said, "Now, Son, you need to get a good education." The son replied, "Yeah, Dad, but why?" He said, "It's so you can get a good job." ...

Tony Evans is founder and President of The Urban Alternative. He pastors Oak Cliff Bible Fellowship Church in Dallas, Texas. His most recent book is Kingdom Man.