There is a dating commercial
telecasted nationally where this young woman named Beth is more successful
being a bridesmaid than a bride. She informs the owner of the dating service
that she had joined 14 dating services (It seems as if this is what the world and Christians want:
more options.). He asked her if his service was one of them.
She said, “I don’t have time for all of those dating questions.” To his chagrin
he appealed to reason, “Beth, you want faster forever! Only my dating service
takes the time to find you that perfect someone.” Obviously, Beth doesn’t have
the time in finding a love that lasts, that “perfect someone.”
There was a recent local commercial showing
this woman with three kids complaining that she didn’t have time for back pain!
Enter stage right a chiropractic practice claiming to be the answer to her back
issues. She doesn’t have time for back pain, but she is going to have to spend
the next twelve weeks in a program designed to manage her back pain!
My all-time favorite ridiculousness of
not having time for something was in the movie Predator starring Arnold Schwarzenegger. One of his cohorts by the
name of Blain (Jesse Ventura) got shot. Poncho, a fellow teammate informed him,
“You’re bleeding, man. You got hit.” Blain responded, “I ain’t got time to
bleed.” Really?
Enter stage left my microwave oven! I
love my microwave! What a great invention of passing electromagnetic waves
through food. The heat is derived from the absorption of energy by the water
molecules in the food and cooks it. It is simple, quick, convenient, and it
accommodates my ever-present potential of impatience – “I don’t have time.”
Since the majority, if not all, households have a microwave in the kitchen,
there is no need of convincing anyone how it makes life easier and faster from
a culinary point of view, but allow me to mention just a couple of things.
If I want to heat up some coffee or
have a hankering for some hot chocolate, it is much quicker putting it inside
the microwave, shutting the door, and pushing a few buttons rather than putting
it on the snail stove for the heat up. When I am in the mood for popcorn, I
just pop it in the microwave. The other day I carelessly nuked a can of chili by
inadvertently forgetting to place a plastic cover over the bowl (I didn’t have
time.). The chili heated up all right, but in the process, it blew up all over the
inside of that microwave. What a mess I created for myself! Now, I had to take the time out of
my not having the time to clean up my mess; go figure. I guess beans are too
thin-skinned when overexposed to electromagnetic waves like some people under
pressure?
I love putting all beef hot dogs in the microwave, too! I will put two
on a saucer and nuke it until the dogs literally start this high pitch squealing!
It is the sound of delight for me! When those dogs start wailing I know they
are ready to eat. Slap some mayo on whole wheat buns; add some nacho chips on
the side; and wash it all down with some good old southern sweet tea! Life is
good.
Well, if we kept the microwave in the
kitchen it would be great, but unfortunately too many of us believers have incorporated
a microwave mentality of wanting everything fast and furious, including
spirituality. We want all our spiritual food needed to be like Christ simple,
quick, and convenient with little to no effort. Why is that do you suppose? I
believe it is because we have filled our lives with so many “hurry-ups” that we
literally don’t have time for meaningful things that take time unless we cut
out our sleep to some degree. God forbid we give up our misplaced priorities.
Why, what would the world be coming to if we did that!?
Any problem with time is really a
matter of priority. I am a firm believer that a person will do his or her
priorities. They are often misplaced, but they will do what is important to them.
Sometimes when you find out what is important to people all you can say is, “What?!
You’re kidding me, right?” Whenever we decide to invest in wood, hay, and straw
priorities, we are moving away from the eternal (knowing and doing God’s will);
this is always a bad decision when going contrary to the will and Word of God
because such actions break fellowship with God and lead to loss of rewards at the judgment seat of Christ for believers only. Of course, we pursue
headlong into that which is temporal anyway because we don’t have time for the
Bema Seat, right?
No, if we are like most superficial
saints consumed with wanting their self-esteem to be stroked or their
hyper-sensitivities being coddled like a newborn, we want to pop a microwaveable
bag of buttered Christlikeness and have a ready-fast Christlike meal in three minutes or
less while watching our favorite television program as we thumb through our
smartphone.
Somehow we have arrived as professing Christians at mocking the belief that the Bible is the supreme and final authority in all matters of faith and practice. It can be seen by the prevailing ignorance of biblical truth among God’s people in a time when there is the greatest proliferation of Bible literature in the history of man. We flock to hear the preachers from the pulpit because we love to hear God’s Word and submit to its authority. So much so, pastors have to instruct the congregations on where certain books of the Bible are located.
Somehow we have arrived as professing Christians at mocking the belief that the Bible is the supreme and final authority in all matters of faith and practice. It can be seen by the prevailing ignorance of biblical truth among God’s people in a time when there is the greatest proliferation of Bible literature in the history of man. We flock to hear the preachers from the pulpit because we love to hear God’s Word and submit to its authority. So much so, pastors have to instruct the congregations on where certain books of the Bible are located.
We see believers embracing the truth
of God’s Word in our communities through their cafeteria-styled obedience of cherry-picking what they want to believe and ignore. If this is brought to their
attention, they just simply leave the church and go somewhere else where their lifestyle
can be accepted and embraced. After all, God is a God of love; doctrine is of man. And truthfully, they don't have time for a lifestyle change; it's easier just to go to another more “loving” church. Today,
evidence of love for God is measured not by obedience but by the thickness of the dust settled on the Bible at home. We have gotten this far in life
without the Word; why should we do anything differently now; we don’t have time
to worry about any judgment.
What a privilege it is to live in a
day where we can do it faster and better than those who came before us! I would
facetiously propose to you that we continue as is; simply because we don’t have
time! Excuse me, I just got an alert on social media about the Super Bowl; I don’t
have time for any Scripture references today. <><
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