Convenience Usually Doesn’t Help

Many circumstances have gotten me thinking about convenience.  I’m not a big fan of convenience.  Let me tell you why.

Convenience is not good for our souls.  That’s why.  Please - honestly - let me know if you can think of a way in which convenience is helpful for our souls.

I can think of some instances when convenience is good.  A clean, close, and convenient bathroom, for example, is good when you’ve got a sudden urge to go that cannot wait.  A nearby mother who is willing to babysit your two year old while you go shopping is a good convenience.  There are many more examples.  And I would not recommend avoiding such conveniences.  I’m only saying that convenience is not a path to a healthier soul.

My church recently implemented automated tithing as a convenience.  It’s quite the convenience-trend for churches, some are even installing tithing kiosks on the church grounds.  Allegedly it makes it easier and more convenient for people to tithe.  That seems questionable.  But even if it did, I wonder (actually, I doubt) if it makes it easier for a person’s soul.  Thoughtful questioning of the link between convenience - especially technological convenience - and the well-being of a person is a topic largely off the table in our culture and our churches.  Too bad.

This weekend I had to use a hand plane to flatten some glued up boards.  (I had been planning to use a planing jig for my router created with some poplar a friend claimed he would let me have, eh hem.)  Restless to keep my project going, I looked around my ill-stocked shop this weekend and discovered the old hand plane I’d gotten when my grandfather died nearly a decade ago.  It was rusty and unusable when I got it.  And so at that time I got into fettling, or restoring old tools.  (Who can resist claiming that they “fettle” for a hobby?)  This was the only old tool I had to restore.  But it came along nicely and then I tucked it away.  This weekend I took it out.  What do you know?  It sort of worked!  It was my first time flattening a board with a hand plane.  The kids loved watching.  The shavings are cool to play with.  I felt like Pa from Little House.  And my project is now back on track.  No convenience needed.

Comments

[Paz]

Convenience for the soul? that's new. Why would convenience be a part of the soul? the soul may not need convenience and more commitment. Every convenience brings its own inconveniences along with it.” quote.

[Jamie Cain]

Great post, Dave. Thanks for the food for thought.