Miss Kate puts together a writing challenge for a group of people called the Five Minute Friday community. We have a facebook group too! This week the word is Convenient, and I invite you to come join us.
Pondering the word convenient thoughts run through my mind.
At how this world LOVES the convenient.
Fast food galore.
Drive throughs.
Easy chairs in the theatre.
Ready made meals.
Microwaves and Insta-Pots.
Convenience surrounds us
Sometimes I wonder if all this convenience
is truly advantageous to us?
Is it acceptable or beneficial
for us to have everything so easily at hand?
This week I have seen on facebook
the easy attack on prime ministers, presidents
and smiling teenage boys.
In a day of easy convenience
It’s become agreeable and acceptable
to jump on the bandwagon
To not do the leg work.
Having a life of convenience
Has the unfortunate result of
also making us lazy.
Not wanting to take the time to make
homemade mac and cheese
Or a lasnagna made from scratch
or spend the time laughing with a loved one
when making a quick stir fry.
When did convenience get in the way
Of us truly living and thinking
through our lives.
Has it all come down to the quick fix?
Quick emotions
Fast meals
The helpful short-cuts
So distracted we can’t even take the time
To talk and think
To really acknowledge what is most important?
These beneficial and time-saving
Ways filter down into
How we live out our faith
With five minute devotionals
Quick read prayer books
Where’s the deep thought into
a Bible passage?
The willingness to do the
hardwork to show God’s Glory to the
world at large?
Can we handle the backlash?
Do we understand the need for a long view approach?
Can we in this immediate gratification society
understand the need for patience and fortitude?
I don’t know in this convenience driven
Fast food culture.
Will the faithful stand?
You pose an important question in such a poetic way! As an Australian married to a Cambodian I’m often reminded I’m so used to things being easy. When the washing machine breaks by default I would take the clothes to a laundromat. But he things the logical thing to do is to “just wash them” (by hand). I would sooner pay the 1 dollar to get them washed than do it myself, but that is weird to him.
it does make sense to just wash them doesn’t it…yet so easy to hit the laundromat. Just like I SHOULD just walk to the store rather than driving… (guess what I tend to do). I need to stop doing that!
So true, I have been challenged a lot in the last 2 years with inConvenience according to my thinking but is it not when things become inconvenient, difficult that we grow in character and in relationship to God.
yes, challenge makes us stronger as people.
Great post! It’s so true… The farther our western world culture has gotten from inconvenience, the farther we’ve drifted from love/seeing humanity…
Side note: I have an instant pot and I, for one, do not view it as convenient. I love it, but it actually ADDS to my cooking/cleaning chore. LOL. I do not, however, own a microwave for this very reason…
really? I’ve never heard anyone say that about an instapot.. all I hear are rave reviews. 🙂 I have no interest in owning one as it’s easy to make a quick meal even from scratch. We need to take the time for each other.
#15 FMF–We think alike. Fast food for me went out when I became an adult and decided I would cook like my grandmothers instead. Thanks for your interesting way of writing about FMF word.
thank you. 🙂 I do like fast food, but homemade is WAY better for me and keeps ME healthier which keeps me happier overall.. which is awesome. 🙂
Brilliant post, and as an idiot trying to build an aeroplane from scratch, this sure resonates with me.
Just want to be able to say, I did this myself, and my blood and sweat is on every piece.
🙂 Andrew… that’s the way it needs to be done sometimes.
Your final question is extremely important and, while in different words, one that I was discussing recently. We are used to everything be fast and easy. To have to take time, to slow down, to do things and do then right – can be challenging. God’s way can be easy and His burden is light but that is not the same as convenient. So often, we confuse words. This post has gotten me thinking.
It still has me thinking Lori… pondering… sometimes words just make you think.