Ease versus Quality

I love a good cup of coffee. Perhaps I even take it to the extreme for most people. A few years ago my loving wife, who doesn't drink coffee at all, bought a coffee roaster for me. I purchase unroasted beans from several online suppliers, roast each different bean to my desired specification, blend them as I think they will be the best, grind my beans immediately before brewing, and then make my coffee in a French press. I must admit, it is always a fantastic cup of coffee when I do this. There is something about the taste, smell, and texture of a cup made in this fashion which cannot be replicated any other way.

A few months ago, I bought a Keurig brewer. It is a one-cup coffee maker which uses a pre-measured cup of coffee. My brewer has a timer, so it is on and hot when I get up in the morning. I pop one of the pre-measured cup into the machine, hit brew and in about 60 seconds I have a steaming hot cup of coffee. A cup brewed in such a fashion has a nice taste, but little aroma and even less texture. It pales in comparison to my hand-crafted cup of coffee, and yet it is extremely easy and passes for a decent cup of coffee.

I have really been thinking about this the last week or so for some reason. I guess it is because I see a huge similarity to other areas of life. While I will settle for an easy cup of coffee, I really prefer the one that comes with a greater effort; yet, for the past several months I have been going with ease over quality. My time with God has been much the same. A passing time of prayer, a quick devotional read, and then on to the business at hand.

As I stated previously, I have decided to abstain from the Internet except in the cases of e-mail communication and updating this site. In conjunction with this, I have been using a devotional called "Ashes to Fire" which is a lectionary which gives multiple Bible passages to read each day. I have found that I am really loving the greater time spent in reading the Scripture, and the extra time spent in prayer. The quality of my devotional time has improved, and I am really loving it. It is so easy for pastors to get caught up in study and sermon preparation, and still starve for personal devotional time. I can't tell how many times I have heard pastors who have lamented about this situation. As we read the Bible, we tend to be looking for insight and meaning that we can share with our congregations. That is great, and neccessary, but at the same time, it draws our attention away from what God is trying to say to us on a personal level a lot of the time.

I can't separate my Scripture reading into "this is for me" and "this is for everyone else". It just doesn't work that way. I am who I am, and that is a minister of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. What I glean from the Scriptures is going to influence what I present to the congregation. However, turning my attentions toward the passage of Scripture for next Sunday's sermon isn't allowing me to delve into the richness of Scripture to feed my soul.

It is easy to convince myself that as I prepare for sermons, I am in the Word and it is good enough. But, like the quick and easy cup of coffee is really coffee, it isn't nearly as satifying as putting forth the extra effort to truly enjoy the richness that comes from going the extra mile. The quality of digging deeply into the richness of Scripture just can't be replaced by a one-dimensional study for having a message to share. During this Lenten season, God has reminded me that the quality of my time spent with Him is far more satisfying than focusing my studies solely on what I will share with others.

Sometimes I need the ease of a quick cup of coffee, but oh how wonderful it is when I can take the time to really pursue that high-quality cup of coffe I truly desire. And such is the nature of my relationship with Jesus Christ. There are times when I just have a few minutes to spend in the Word, and then I must be off and going again. But the richness that can be gleaned when I can take the time to pursue quality over ease cannot be overstated. I would encourage you to evalute your own devotional lives right now. Are you pursuing what's easy, or are you going for quality?