Quality Over Convenience
Author: Pastor Dylan Roderick
April 04, 2019
The point is this: whoever sows sparingly will also reap
sparingly, and whoever sows bountifully will also reap bountifully. 2
Corinthians 9:6
I love coffee. I love everything
about it. I began drinking it when I was thirteen and have never stopped. When
I first started drinking it I only cared about one thing. Its ability to wake
me up. I would load it full of cream and sugar so I could stomach the flavor
because I wanted to reap the benefits of the caffeine. Coffee was nothing more
than a means to an end and I loved the convenience of the coffee just getting
brewed on a timer so I would wake up and it be ready to go. During college I
had an awakening of what coffee could actually be. There is a coffee shop in
Marion, Indiana called “The Abbey.” This is where I was educated on the beauty
of coffee. It didn’t have to just be a means to an end but could actually be a
quality beverage that I enjoyed drinking. I would always a “pour over coffee”
and soon I decided I was going to buy the necessary equipment to get this
quality at home. There is a process to quality though. I had to wake up earlier
and take the time to boil water, grind beans and manually pour the water over
the coffee grounds. And you measure the
temperature, and the weight of water and coffee every step of the way. I know
that this method is not for everyone but I value coffee so I wanted to have the
best quality possible but that required me sacrificing convenience to achieve
that.
I believe that this is a lesson for many things in
life; in order to achieve quality we have to sacrifice convenience. It’s up to
us to decide what is worth that sacrifice though. We live in a culture of convenience
but at the cost of quality.
I believe that this translates to our
relationship with God. Sometimes God can start as nothing more than a means to
an end. Maybe as a kid we’re trying to please our parents or grandparents or
maybe we are hoping God works like a genie. We may start with treating God as a
slot machine hoping that we may pull the lever when we pray and receive
something. We may treat God as coffee that we don’t enjoy but we water down and
just want something from. An incredible thing happens when sacrifice
convenience on the altar. We start getting the quality of relationship when we
are willing to put in the focus, attention, love and effort that God deserves.
When God stops being a checklist item or just a means to an end and instead
becomes the King of our life we unlock a whole side of Christianity that is
filled with excitement and joy.
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