I love who Jesus is and what he has done in my life and what he has challenged me to do. I love spending moments with him where in a moment clarity comes to something I have been thinking about or asking about.
I think though, we over value the idea of spontaneous growth and undervalue the reality of hard work and long conversations.
We live in a time in culture where just about everything that we could possibly ever want we can get instantly or extremely quickly, and there are five different companies that we can get it from.
Without thinking this mentality and ability creeps into our hearts and minds and begins to infect every area of our lives.
“We begin to expect the world to offer us whatever we want.
We begin to believe the lie that our comfort should be everyone’s priority.
We begin to ingest the poison that suggests every great quality thing should also be spontaneously accessible.”
The reality is that the kingdom that we are a part of does not work the way the world works, it never has and it never will.
I think many of us have had spontaneous consumeristic culture creep into our spiritual lives.
Many of us haven't intentional allowed it in, if we knew it was creeping in we never would have allowed it we tell ourselves, but I see the evidence of it in my life all the time. One of the places I see it more often is in my time with Poppa God.
I meet quite a few new people every week. Sometimes I get home and get on social media to find that a new person I met now wants to be "friends." In a few minutes I can learn a ton of things about my new friend, simply by looking at their social media. Social media tells so much about many of us today that employers are beginning to ask applicants for their social media handles when they submit resumes! Why? Because you can learn so much about someone so much quicker than you used to be able to.
If we are honest we really wish most days that Jesus had a Facebook or Twitter or Instagram so in a few seconds we could learn something new about him instead of having to invest time and energy.
We do this with our real life friends.
Instead of having them over for dinner or going out to grab coffee we substitute the face to face with face to screen and tell ourselves that we are great friends.
To get to know Jesus and better understand his character and heart we must spend time with him, and in his word.
There is something extremely powerful and captivating about working slowly through the scriptures. It is like a long conversation with a dear friend, where there is no agenda, while sharing an amazing cup of coffee.
We must set out to combat this instant gratification that is plaguing our hearts and our relationships with Jesus. I think two of the many solutions, are hard work and long conversations.
HARD WORK
Those aren't dirty words in christianity. If we are going to Know Jesus and have his heart and model his character to the world it is going to take hard work. It is going to take more than attending a Sunday Service and reading a 2 minute devotional. It is going to take the hard work of vulnerability, self-discipline, and community. It is going to take the hard work of reading scripture, asking questions, and wrestling with The Holy Spirit of God. It is going to take the hard work of commitment.
LONG CONVERSATIONS
I think as lovers of Jesus we need to be people whose lives are full of long conversations. With people. With God. With outsiders. With insiders. With prodigals. With young. With Old. With in-between. Jesus modeled a life of long conversations. Long walks and long talks with the disciples about who he was and what he had come to the earth for and what was coming. We need to have long conversations with Jesus. Prayer. All the time. In every situation. Audible. Silent. We need long conversations with others full of hurts and pains, joys and triumphs, successes and failures.
These aren't the only two solutions to this plague of instantaneism (made that word up), but for me they are the place I am starting. I am reading through all of Psalms, one a day, and journaling some thoughts. Not a race to the finish or to cross it off the list, but to work hard and slow through them and allow the Word of God to change me. I am having long conversations with dear friends, being vulnerable, being dependable.
Slowly I am learning to be present and to be ok with the pace and culture of the Kingdom.
What are some things that you do in your life to combat instantaneism?