Do any of you like to be early? To church, the movies, class, job interviews, or whatever else the occasion might be? The general consensus among most successful people would be that punctuality is a worthwhile endeavor. At first glance I would have to agree. However, sometimes don’t you think we take it a bit too far?
Case in point: “Black Friday”, the largest shopping day of the year. Every year people get up at three o’clock in the morning to wait in line for their department store of choice to open at like 4:00 A.M. The door swings open and the mob surges through recklessly. Ignorant of bystanders, fellow shoppers, and the store associates in their path.
Last year alone I read about at least five different instances where people were trampled to death in this situation. I mean come on. That is just on a level of ridiculousness that should make any self respecting person cringe, but that type of behavior is hardly limited to “Black Friday.”
Everyday—all over our country people are making choices to put their own selfishness above those around them. Look at the state of our society. Think about how you act in line at your favorite fast food joint. How do you respond if you go into a restaurant and people who were seated after you get served before you?
Our society has become a society ripened with the mentality that instant gratification is the best option. We want fast, we want it first, and we want it now. We demonstrate this in our relationships, our jobs, and our hobbies. The repugnancy of our actions has created a cycle where each generation is becoming more self-centered and selfish than the one which came before it.
Long term investment in anything is old hat. We want the new nowness. Romance is no longer a thing of beauty to be cultivated over time like a prize garden. It’s a cheap trinket we want to pick up, use, and toss away when we’ve had our way with it. Friendships are shallow and superficial, with both sides seeking mutual gain. The economic infrastructure is rife with this kind of ideology; bail outs, golden parachutes, quick gains, high risk-quick yield investments.
Who is stopping to think about consequences? Who has time for that kind of careful introspection? No, we’re very quick to move on to the next apparent thing that will make us feel better, look better, or get better.
Our spirituality has not escaped this mentality. Some of us would like to close our eyes and pretend it has. Some are all too happy to realize the truth and capitalize on people’s weakness, but God himself is content with neither.
Romans 8: 22-27 puts it like this, “We know that the whole creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time. Not only so, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for our adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies. For in this hope we were saved. But hope that is seen is no hope at all. Who hopes for what he already has? But if we hope for what we do not yet have, we wait for it patiently. In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groans that words cannot express. And he who searches our hearts knows the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints in accordance with God's will.”
I believe we could all, from time to time, handle a little dose of God-inspired patience. And not only patience, but satisfaction for what we already have. Not merely in material possessions or gain, but contentment in those ephemeral things like relationships.
We should strive to put to death this mentality of me, myself, and mine first. The early bird might get the worm, but the second mouse gets the cheese.
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