No luck at Wal-mart
Published on July 21, 2004 By Brock Beesley In Religion
Yesterday I accompanied my mother-in-law to the doctor . . . somewhat/maybe-not/supposed-to-be routine check-up. One of the doctor's main concerns was that my mother-in-law is like a speedy gonzales. She doesn't stop to smell the roses . . . OR to chew her food properly, which causes indigestion (among other things).
Tonight I went to wal-mart and when I was done shopping I started searching the different check-out lines for the shortest one. If you're anything like me, I can't stand a long line anywhere, especially Wal-mart. I mean, think about it: they have 5000 check-out lines and usually only 3 or 4 are working.
But tonight I found one of these "self-checkout" lines where you scan and bag everything yourself. However, I found myself increasingly frustrated because it seemed to take me longer to scan and bag 1 item than it did a cashier to scan and bag 5 items with the people beside me. I couldn't believe how long it took me.
I'm still trying to figure out how we turned into a McDonald's society. Everything has to be fast, fast, fast. Go, go, go. Even church has to be like that. We spend 9 or more hours a day at work, 2 or more hours a day eating, 7 or more hours a day sleeping, but if a church service is longer than 1 and 1/2 hours, we complain.
There are definitely times that God wants to talk to us but we're always wanting to get the readers digest version of his thoughts . . .
I wonder what would happen if we trained ourselves to just settle down and chill and spend time reading His Word, meditating on Scripture, and communicating with Him instead of wanting a drive-through time with God like we do our Big Mac value meal?

Comments
on Jul 21, 2004
An interesting conundrum, our fast paced lives. We constantly try to speed up, but yet at the same time feel the need to stop and smell the roses. A good country band called Rascal Flatts has a song out called "I Miss Mayberry" which discusses some of the frustration you seem to put forth in this article.

Good article.

Keep up the good work.

Peace,

Beebes
on Sep 05, 2004
Don't expect most to slow down anytime soon. Despite the plethora of material goods in most people's lives, the treadmill awaits, calling us to get more, *more*, MORE!!

Sorry, I must run now - the treadmill is calling.

JW