You pay for convenience

This thought came to mind the other morning as I was getting ready for work – just a seemingly random thought at the time. However, as I contemplated it more, this phrase I’ve heard before – that you pay for convenience, it hit me in a new way. We do pay for convenience….we pay more money for the newest gadgets that offer the promise that they’ll save us time or effort, will help us accomplish what we need to do in a faster, more efficient way.

And believe me, I like faster and efficient. I don’t like to waste my time doing something if it can be done in a ‘better’ way.

But I just wonder if I’ve ever really counted the cost of convenience – not just financially – but what I’m giving up when I’m doing things ‘the easier way.’ What experiences am I now able to avoid that God may have used to build my character, to grow my discipline, to produce perseverance in me? What depths in relationships do I miss by sending quick text messages and emails, instead of taking the time to even make a phone call or sit down over coffee? What am I now exempt from because the easy way is available, more accessible than ever?

“Enter through the narrow gate; for wide is the gate and spacious and broad is the way that leads away to destruction, and many are those who are entering through it.” – Matthew 7:13

And I think about my daughter – all the conveniences this world will offer her – and what she may miss out on because of this.

Lord, please grant us (me) wisdom and discernment to choose what is best over what is available and permissible, to choose Your way over the world’s and even my way. Give us Kingdom eyes to know what is of real value.

In Jesus’ Name I pray and place my trust,
-jh

Lord, please