Holiday shopping can be a very enjoyable task, though often is one that can be very frustrating. What to buy, where to buy it, how to put up with the 50,000 other people trying to get the same thing that you are in a store that seems to only hold 100 people and checkout 10 simultaneously. The experience is also fraught with learning experiences as well. First and foremost are a few lessons in patience. I learned long ago, if you are in a hurry, “Just Say No!” There are other lessons as well, however.
This year while waiting in line to get a last minute gift card at one of the local superstores, I got in line with perhaps the slowest cashier you have ever seen (and perhaps the most frustrated). At one of the busiest times of day her scanner on the counter gave out and would not seem to scan anything. Therefore, after she scanned item number one and it didn’t go, she got the hand scanner (that little gun looking thing that is portable – they ought to give them holsters and teach them quick draw for this time of year) and it worked fine. She then put the scanner away and went back to the stack of stuff the person in front of me was trying to get through the “less than ten items” line. On the second item, the scanner didn’t work either so the woman opened the drawer, got out the hand scanner, scanned the item and then put the hand scanner back. Same thing on the third through fiftieth item… scanner doesn’t work, get hand scanner, put hand scanner back, try counter-top scanner.
The thing that amazed me was not that this was so slow, but the woman’s willingness to continue in something that just wasn’t working and frustrating her to death, especially when she had a perfectly good alternative that she kept ramming back in the drawer. Each and every time she would go to the handheld, but then put it away, as if the other were going to magically fix itself. What a waste of time and energy.
How often does this ring true for us spiritually? We get caught in some desire or want. We begin to bear the consequences. God gives us a way out. However, we just toy with the escape and stay in the frustrating, shame-producing, hurtful, sinful path. How absurd! All the while God gets stuffed back in that proverbial drawer and waits for us to pull him out. Often it is only when it becomes convenient for us, or we, Like King Saul of the Old Testament, have been caught. Yet, God has your solution. Do you want it? He’ll be waiting for you! Don’t waste your time trying to manage the spiritually ineffective and defective. Strive for His perfection by doing His will.
This year while waiting in line to get a last minute gift card at one of the local superstores, I got in line with perhaps the slowest cashier you have ever seen (and perhaps the most frustrated). At one of the busiest times of day her scanner on the counter gave out and would not seem to scan anything. Therefore, after she scanned item number one and it didn’t go, she got the hand scanner (that little gun looking thing that is portable – they ought to give them holsters and teach them quick draw for this time of year) and it worked fine. She then put the scanner away and went back to the stack of stuff the person in front of me was trying to get through the “less than ten items” line. On the second item, the scanner didn’t work either so the woman opened the drawer, got out the hand scanner, scanned the item and then put the hand scanner back. Same thing on the third through fiftieth item… scanner doesn’t work, get hand scanner, put hand scanner back, try counter-top scanner.
The thing that amazed me was not that this was so slow, but the woman’s willingness to continue in something that just wasn’t working and frustrating her to death, especially when she had a perfectly good alternative that she kept ramming back in the drawer. Each and every time she would go to the handheld, but then put it away, as if the other were going to magically fix itself. What a waste of time and energy.
How often does this ring true for us spiritually? We get caught in some desire or want. We begin to bear the consequences. God gives us a way out. However, we just toy with the escape and stay in the frustrating, shame-producing, hurtful, sinful path. How absurd! All the while God gets stuffed back in that proverbial drawer and waits for us to pull him out. Often it is only when it becomes convenient for us, or we, Like King Saul of the Old Testament, have been caught. Yet, God has your solution. Do you want it? He’ll be waiting for you! Don’t waste your time trying to manage the spiritually ineffective and defective. Strive for His perfection by doing His will.
