We live in the generation of Right Now.
We want everything quickly — Instant credit, fast food, instant news. We’ve been raised on 30 second commercials and 140-character status updates.
We simply don’t have attention for anything that takes a long time. Watch how people fidget in the grocery store line, at the Post Office, or at a red light.
We are an impatient people.
But discipleship is a long endeavor, not a quick fix. Character growth with God is like an oak tree that takes years to mature.
Eugene Peterson in his book, A Long Obedience in the Same Direction, speaks to this:
“Everyone is in a hurry. Everyone wants shortcuts. They want help to fill out the form that will get them instant credit (in eternity). They are impatient for results. They have adopted the lifestyle of a tourist and only want the high points. There is a great market for religious experience in our world; there is little enthusiasm for the patient acquisition of virtue, little inclination to sign up for a long apprenticeship in what earlier generations of Christians called holiness. Growth, or discipleship, is more like cooking with a crock pot, instead of a microwave. It can be slow, long, and difficult, but is always the best way.”
Is your faith on simmer, or on boil? Comment here.
Please, share with a friend if you feel moved.
Read all past issues at http://www.patheos.com/blogs/davidrupert
Read all past issues at http://www.patheos.com/blogs/davidrupert
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