My wife and I enjoyed an 11 hour bus ride yesterday from Toronto to Philadelphia. Except for the hour long border crossing (two of the passengers were having difficulty getting into the US and caused most of the delay) the trip was uneventful. The bus was comfortable, only half full and the drivers were excellent. However promised wi fi service was very intermittent.
After several tries I was able to get onto the internet - for a few minutes - then suddenly I was off. I tried periodically for a few hours. Occasionally I was connected but again only for a few minutes. One email I managed to send took 18 hours to arrive at its destination.
The question I found myself asking was: which is worse - no offer of wifi or totally unreliable, intermittent internet service? I wasted a lot of time trying to connect. The occasional momentary connection served only to raise my hopes and then leave me frustrated and disappointed. Fortunately my favourite friend, my wife was with me; and I had a good book to read (my kindle was not working either). I finally gave up on the wifi connection.
As a Christian and pastor, I've been wondering since yesterday about a parallel: in God's eyes, which is worse - those who sporadically turn to God in prayer and maybe lifestyle, but usually break off contact very quickly; or those who just don't connect with God at all. They ignore Him, deny His existence or in their pride have decided they can do better without His help.
Many of us would suppose that some contact with God - some reaching out to Him - is better than nothing. However I wonder how God feels about that? I wonder if He wishes we would just "leave Him alone" if we are not serious; if we are not going to work at growing an intentional, faith friendship with Him? I wonder if we are not serious about following Jesus; would He rather we just go ahead and live totally without Him instead of weak, intermittent attempts to reconnect?
I wonder if He would rather we were hot or cold, but not luke warm. (Revelation 3:15, 16)
After several tries I was able to get onto the internet - for a few minutes - then suddenly I was off. I tried periodically for a few hours. Occasionally I was connected but again only for a few minutes. One email I managed to send took 18 hours to arrive at its destination.
The question I found myself asking was: which is worse - no offer of wifi or totally unreliable, intermittent internet service? I wasted a lot of time trying to connect. The occasional momentary connection served only to raise my hopes and then leave me frustrated and disappointed. Fortunately my favourite friend, my wife was with me; and I had a good book to read (my kindle was not working either). I finally gave up on the wifi connection.
As a Christian and pastor, I've been wondering since yesterday about a parallel: in God's eyes, which is worse - those who sporadically turn to God in prayer and maybe lifestyle, but usually break off contact very quickly; or those who just don't connect with God at all. They ignore Him, deny His existence or in their pride have decided they can do better without His help.
Many of us would suppose that some contact with God - some reaching out to Him - is better than nothing. However I wonder how God feels about that? I wonder if He wishes we would just "leave Him alone" if we are not serious; if we are not going to work at growing an intentional, faith friendship with Him? I wonder if we are not serious about following Jesus; would He rather we just go ahead and live totally without Him instead of weak, intermittent attempts to reconnect?
I wonder if He would rather we were hot or cold, but not luke warm. (Revelation 3:15, 16)
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