The Fourth of July and Chicken Fried Common Grace

by Justin Dillehay

Country music definitely has its flaws. As a case in point, witness the current travesty of so called "Truck Songs," which feature as their staple items: 1) a guy with a truck 2) a 'perty thang' sitting next to him 3) a river bank 4) alcohol of some sort 5) lame attempts at rapping.

So yes, country music has its flaws; especially at the moment. But it also retains certain virtues that other genres have long lost (if they ever had them). Amid all its truck-centered hedonism, you can still find songs touting sane views of manhood and womanhood, the natural family, and love for one's country, much of which you would never hear on pop radio.

As you would expect, it's the patriotic element in country music that occasions this Fourth of July post.

About a year ago, my wife Tilly and I were driving down the road, and I decided to introduce her to "Chicken Fried," the debut single from the Zac Brown Band. If you haven't heard it, click on the link and listen to it. Seeing the lyrics will help you appreciate this post.

"Chicken Fried" is what I would call an ode to the good things in life. The simple blessings that make life pleasant: chicken fried, cold beer on a Friday night, a pair of jeans that fit just right, the sunrise, sweet tea, pecan pie, the love in your wife's eyes, the touch of a precious child, a mother's love, etc.

All good things. Tilly may have thought the song a little cheesy, but she agreed that all of these things were among life's little blessings.

But what really drew her laughter was the final verse. After a nifty instrumental bridge, Brown finally reaches this lyrical climax:

I thank God for my life
For the stars and stripes
May freedom forever fly
Let it ring
Salute the ones who died [cue military drums at this point]
The ones who give their lives
So we don't have to sacrifice
All the things we love...like our chicken fried...

She chuckled at this stock-patriotism because it seemed totally out of left field. Fried chicken, cute babies, sweet tea, and patriotism??? Is Zac Brown not simply pulling a David Allen Coe and trying to load every country music stereotype into one song?

But as I told her at the time, she was wrong to scoff.

Here's why.

Whether you think Brown's lyrics particularly poetic or not, his basic point is solid. And it's this:

Freedom to enjoy life's little blessings doesn't grow in a vacuum. It doesn't emerge naturally like the air that we breathe. Instead, it is blood-bought. 

In a fallen world filled with fallen people, we need not ask "Why is there war and injustice?" Such things come with the territory. We should instead ask, "What makes for peace and justice?"

We know why people want to enjoy fried chicken and quiet evenings: because these are good things. But that doesn't necessarily mean they'll be able to. Just ask the millions of people who lived in Mao's China and Stalin's Russia.

Peace and justice don't just happen. They are the fruit of a civil government restraining evil and pursuing the common good, and of soldiers willing to give their lives to maintain a just peace. Here's how C.S. Lewis put it:

The secular community, since it exists for our natural good, has no higher end than to facilitate and to safeguard the family, and friendship, and solitude...As long as we are thinking only of natural values, we must say that the sun looks down on nothing half so good as a household laughing together over a meal, or two friends talking over a pint of beer, or a man alone reading a book that interests him...All economies, politics, laws, armies, and institutions are a mere plowing the sand and sowing the ocean...save insofar as they prolong and multiply such scenes.

According to C.S. Lewis, that's why governments and armies exist: so that a family can laugh together over a meal ("a little bit of chicken fried"); so that two friends can talk peacefully over a pint of beer ("a cold beer on a Friday night"); and so that a man can sit alone and enjoy a book ("and the radio up"--OK, this parallel is a bit of a stretch, but you get the point).

And according to Zac Brown, good governments and armies are the reason we can enjoy all those things. (Conversely, bad governments and armies are often what keep whole societies from enjoying those things.)

All this stems from a good God's blessing--what theologians call God's 'common grace.' God loves it when his creation is lawfully enjoyed (Deut. 14:23-26), but there are a million wicked things (including ourselves) that will keep us from such enjoyment. This is why God ordained government--to praise good, punish evil, and promote human flourishing.

Failing to see this will only make us spoiled and ungrateful. And at the end of the day that's really all that being patriotic means--being grateful. Recognizing that multitudes of others both dead and living have made it possible for you to eat your 'chicken fried' in peace.

So as you gather with your families and eat your pecan pie and drink your beer this Fourth of July weekend, eat and drink with grateful hearts. Remember who has made this possible. Give honor to whom honor is due. And praise God for chicken fried common grace.