Easy Button

I was at Staples today. Have you ever noticed that you can buy an "easy button?" It costs $6. A bargain, of course, if it really did what is advertised in their commercials. A $6 gimmick, actually.

There is a whole lot that seems to be appealing about a button that will bring supplies, get you organized and solve all of your problems. Six dollars? A bargain.

Of course, it doesn't really work. Nevertheless, we often search for the "easy button" in life.

Do we want an easy religion?

• Do we want life in a church to be easy? Do we desire that everyone in the congregation will be like we are? Our economic status? Our age? Our race? Do we ever wish for it to be easy to join together as the body of Christ?
• Do we want to avoid problems which don't have easy solutions? Do we strive to avoid the hard work of ministry?
• Do we wish it were easier to serve God? Do we hope that the "least of these" will just stay at the mission and not bother us?
• Do we want worship only the way we like it, so that we do not stretch in our style of worship? Do we always want to be comfortable in the sanctuary?
• Do we hope that it will be easy to focus on God, and that the distractions like noisy children, obnoxious youth and a female pastor who demands a voice in church would just go away?
• Do we wish that hospitality were not necessary and that visitors would just come on in, find their way around, and sit quietly on their hands without making demands on us?
• Do we hope that those who try to make faith to difficult to understand would just keep their strange ideas to themselves?

Do we wish our churches had an "easy button?" When will we realize that Christianity is not easy and never will be?