Godlythinking         

Convenience That Steals

Convenience is a quality of life that makes every human life on Earth easier. Personal needs demand ways to make life easier and more comfortable to the individual. Human need is the mother of invention so I have been told, and human need demands that we take advantage of our available time. Therefore, we strive to make life easier and more productive.

Conveniences have improved life as we know it, the amount of productivity has increased to the point that one man can produce up to a thousand times more than he could twenty years ago. To some, the way things are done has made it possible to do more in less time yet the innovations of tools and methods have created more stress to meet the demands of more productivity. Then too, the average person has become better educated in the machines that keep those conveniences in working order.

Some conveniences have but one purpose and that is to make life more suitable to one’s comfort. However, the lazy boy chair has made falling sleeping while watching the TV possible. While conveniences make life more comfortable and things we have to do easier, there is a consequence for our comfort. The lazy boy can be so comfortable that you sleep through your favorite TV program. What a bummer!

The fact is that we can be so comfortable that we neglect the most important things in life. From the lazy boy, people waste time watching stunt scenes on the TV that rarely happen in real life, stories without plots or acts of violence that only people without morals could do and call it enjoyment. Christians are not alone in relying on the TV as a convenient way to baby-sit their children. Then why is it that those who confess to be Christians know more about what is on TV than about God’s word. The problem with the things of convenience is they lull Christians to sleep and sooner or later the consequences rob them of a fulfilling life.  

The homemaker does not want the good old days back with wood stoves and wash boards. In the good old day’s, the housewife spent ten to twelve hours a day, scrubbing, cleaning and cooking from scratch. Today, the conveniences makes it possible to push a few buttons and go to the store while the dishes and clothes are being washed.

While conveniences make our lives easier or more comfortable they capture the time we could use for other things. We allow our conveniences to take control of our lives, such as spending time with our children, spouse and God. We can do so much more than we used to do, but the enjoyable conveniences have made it easier to do more the less practical things while we overlook the things with real priorities.

While it is nice to have conveniences, those conveniences require special handling. Developing a routine that does not change is hard, while a routine governed by a priority and overall goals should be habitual.

Conveniences can be a delusion and temporary solves some problems. For example, electronic games are played against a machine, they keep your child busy and out of your way. Still that convenience robs you of interaction with your spouse, children and friends. You cannot have a relationship with a machine because they only do what you tell them to do. If anything conveniences make you more self-centered and more demanding for those conveniences. However, take one of those conveniences away and your problems come into focus and you suddenly transform from Jeckle to Hyde. Ultimately those conveniences turn that once contented loving person into a tense, angry and violent, fighting tooth and nail to get his or her own way.

Promises were made to be kept and one has to make an effort to be faithful to their word. Keeping your word in a timely manner does not go unnoticed. People in charge of major projects appreciate that you have kept your word and have one less job to do to complete their project. Being faithful to your word helps you to gain stature among your peers. You have to decide what is a matter of convenience or a matter of priority to you. Not long ago I asked for help and was flooded with several promises that would help with a job. I wasn’t in any big hurry and didn’t let them know that they had a specific time to respond. The result was that they would do what they promised until it was convenient for them. They made my Job harder because their promises were conveniently forgotten.

For some people God is a convenience. He is there when you need him with open arms and he receives you as you are. In addition, you can ask him for anything you want because nothing is impossible to him. I suppose it is a matter of who answers the question as to what is convenient. As humans we expect God to meet our needs right now, but when are going to meet his needs.  The time we have on earth is short and life is seen from a different perspective than God sees life. The self-centered lifestyle of human beings turn God into a matter of convenience rather than a Heavenly father worthy of being served.

On the other hand, why does God have to wonder if you are going to be there when he needs you? Are your open to his needs, are your arms open to love others as he has loved you and are you ready to receive others into your inner circle of friends as God has. When the roles are reversed, the matter of convenience to you becomes work rather suddenly. Especially, when you have to do the things that God considers a matter of life and death to him.

You can become a matter of convenience when others pawn work off onto you. When they do, your opinion of them changes for the worse. The matter of convenience becomes a matter of who has the upper hand, or something you want from them. People have learned to use people to gain their needs in a selfish manner and without regards for the person’s feelings. Again the matter of making other people a matter of convenience is not appropriate to the life God wants you to live.

Building the character that God wants will make you throw the issue of convenience out the window. The character God wants is for his children is to give of themselves, to love other people and the use of your time to make Christ known to the world. God builds character into his child for a purpose. Yet character takes work and the effort of applying yourself. The truth is that nothing in life is convenient. God also demands that we use our time wisely, to be alert, to think and plan our life, and then act in a manner that you would like to be treated. So I ask you, What is the matter of convenience worth to you? Saving your eternal was not convenient to our Lord, it wasn’t convenient for Jesus to allow men to nail him to a wooden cross, to endure humiliation, the pain of scourging, the insults of God’s priests and then die for his elect. He demonstrated God’s love for us by substituting his life for ours, dying while we were hopelessly lost and still a sinner.