convenience

It is very inconvenient to continually submit to the will of another-especially when you have been shaped into a person who thinks that life (at least your life) is basically about yourself. But the great irony is that you only find fulfillment, staisfaction, happiness, or meaning when you bend to the will of the other (ultimately, that means to the direction of God).

When God is convenient, you have likely wandered into dangerous territory. That is not to say that God wants to make our lives difficult, but rather to say that a convenient god is one that has been molded in your own image. The convenient God never challenges your decisions, never calls you to do the difficult thing, and always endorses your actions.

Convenience leads to an ongoing string of momentary delights that, at the end of the day, leave you feeling more empty and lost than before. Convenience seems like an easier path, a path of lesser resistance. Yet, it becomes a very hard and lonely road. It is what fits nicely into your own agenda, which often comes at the cost of friendships. Following convenience, over time, strips you of the resources to endure difficulty and conflict.

Convenience leaves you alone at the end because friendship puts you into difficult situations and conflicts. Following convenience prevents you from both receiving and demonstrating love because you never stick around long enough to show love to someone, and you fail to appreciate the sacrifices made when another shows love to you.

I start getting nervous when I notice that I am increasingly interested in what happens to be convenient.