I don’t know if this is true for you but there are times when Christianity is inconvenient for me. It get’s in the way of things and messes with my plans. There are times when I would much rather sleep in, and watch the Seahawks game instead of going to Church on Sunday morning. There are times when I would prefer to come home after a long day at work and skip out on my commitment to serve at my churches food bank. Sometimes I prefer reading sports articles, surfing the internet, browsing Facebook, and doing just about anything else instead of reading the Bible. Truth be told, there have been times throughout my life where Christianity in general has seemed extremely inconvenient to me.
Can you relate with any of my observations? Recently I sat down and spent some time thinking of times throughout my life where I neglected Christianity in lieu of something else. It struck me, every time I became lazy in my Christian commitment, it reflected negatively in my character. My old, bad habit of swearing started to show its ugly face again. I found myself listening to music that would make most seasoned believers uncomfortable. I started lacking in patience, became quicker to anger and a poor witness of Jesus Christ in general. Now, I’m not saying this is the same for everyone else, this has just been my personal experience.
I also spent time considering what benefits I received from the things I neglected Christianity for. For example: football. I gained nothing from spending an entire day watching football (besides weight). Yes, sports are very entertaining, as long as they don’t become so entertaining that you neglect the things that matter in order to fulfill your appetite for them. Facebook is fun too! However, for the most part most of the people on Facebook don’t even know who you really are and if you were to disappear off of the face of the Earth they would never inquire what happened to you.
Music, TV, school, surfing the internet, and studying are all great things as well, as long as they don’t consume your life and cause you to forget about what matters most: Jesus > Family > Everything else! I am older than most of the people I hang out with. That has its plus’s and minus’s. The plus side is I have more life experience than most of my friends and can offer them some valuable input. The downside is there really aren’t too many people in my life who can offer me their valuable input from their life experiences. Ultimately, that is my fault and is yet more evidence of Christianity being inconvenient for me.
Where am I going with all of this? It’s too easy to allow Christianity to become an inconvenience. I’ve found that with prayer and a little self motivation I am able to get back on track. I want to encourage you to do the same by making attending Church a priority for your household on Sunday mornings especially when your favorite team is playing on TV. I want to encourage you to put away the music that makes you slip up, distance yourself from old, bad habits, and commit yourself to living a life that is pleasing to God. I’m not asking you to be perfect, God alone is perfect. I’m not asking you to be like me – I make for an awful standard to conform to. I’m asking that you take these wise words to heart: “Be holy, because I am holy” 1 Peter 1:16. It doesn’t get much sweeter than the very Word of God!
If you can commit to pursuing God diligently in prayer, attending church regularly and attentively, and remaining faithful in your daily Bible reading, you will soon have an entirely different perspective on this thing… Christianity won’t be the inconvenience any more – the other insignificant things in life will become the inconvenience if they threaten those things that matter most – that is, God and family.
Please let me know if this post has been encouraging to you and if you can relate to my experiences. God bless.
The Religious Nerd 