Slow Down a Bit

Convenience. Lately I have felt an echo in my soul to refrain from immediate gratification, remain for a moment, smell the breeze. It has been an interesting journey, one that began sometime at the beginning of last year, but it is creating some new realities in my life, for which I am grateful: the microwave in my house is under boxes in the utility room, I'm selling my car, though an air-conditioning unit is available to us it's not in use, commuting on my bike has become more and more prevalent, cooking from scratch is the new norm in our kitchen. I don't know what sparked all of these changes, but I am so thankful because these physical changes are also paralleled by spiritual ones as well, and though more difficult to explain, the effects are just as real and life-changing.

"The idea of cultivation and exercise, so dear to the saints of old, has now no place in our total religious picture. It is too slow, too common. We now demand glamour and fast-flowing dramatic action. A generation of Christians reared among push buttons and automatic machines is impatient of slower and less direct methods of reaching their goals. We have been trying to apply machine-age methods to our relations with God. We read our chapter, have our short devotions and rush away, hoping to make up for our deep inward bankruptcy by attending another gospel meeting or listening to another thrilling story told by a religious adventurer lately returned from afar. The tragic results of this spirit are all about us: shallow lives, hollow religious philosophies, the preponderance of the element of fun in gospel meetings, the glorification of men, trust in religious externalities, quasi-religious fellowships, salesmanship methods, the mistaking of dynamic personality for the power of the Spirit. These and such as these are the symptoms of an evil disease, a deep and serious malady of the soul." (P64-65, The Pursuit of God, A.W. Tozer)

These words from Tozer challenged me today. I am realizing there are no immediate results in things that matter the most (namely relationships) and I am learning that diligence is a beautiful characteristic to possess. I would like it said of me. Those things I have waited for mean the most in the long run. I want to work hard for things, little by little building on a solid foundation. When I helped build the house in Rwanda, the foundation was sure. It had not been rushed. The builders knew that the foundation was vital to the life and stability of the home. How true of life and relationships. Longing for more, I'll wait. Give me the lasting, not the immediate.