Lindsey Nordby

A few years ago, I was driving home from church and needed some coffee so I pulled into a parking lot where I saw a Starbucks sign. As I got nearer to the store I realized it was just a lobby store and didn’t have a drive through, so instead of stopping I continued driving and just made myself coffee when I got home.

As I drove away that day, as well as into that week, I thought a lot about the decision to not stop. Was this selfish of me? How could I have been so lazy that I couldn’t have just gotten out of my car and walked in?

At the time, the only word that I could associate with this was privilege. I told myself that I needed to stop acting privileged, and instead just get out of the car, walk inside, and get my coffee. I told myself that it was unfair of me to drive away from something just because it wasn’t easy enough and it wasn’t exactly the way I wanted it.

In thinking deeper about this now, years later, I don’t think privilege was the word that I should have associated with this, but instead convenience. It is convenient to have drive-throughs so that when I am tired I don’t need to get out of my car in order to get coffee or food. It makes my life easier, yes, but thats not necessarily privilege, it’s convenience.

I have been thinking a lot about what my relationship with the Lord has looked like recently and I’ve realized that I have taken on a “drive-through” mentality with my faith. When it has been convenient for me to seek out the Lord I did, and when I’d decide that it’d be easier to do something another way and not talk to God, I would turn around.

The convenience that I found in drive-throughs I began to apply to every part of my life, trying to find a convenient way to do so many things. Unfortunately, my faith took the front seat in this.

I would consider myself a faithful Christian. Sure, there are days that feel utterly faithLESS, but thats what happens when I go running to Jesus only when it is easy and convenient to do so.

Unfortunately I am likely not the only one who has this mentality in the world. The problem with only going to the Lord when it is convenient for us is we are then following our own paths and not what the Lord wants our lives to look like. We are making decisions for ourselves and only letting God in when we want to, dictating parts of our lives and letting God control others. Instead, we need to allow Gods hand into our lives wholly and completely.

With this, a lot of people might get stuck because they are constantly in a pickle of never making decisions, unable to discern whether it’s their choice or Gods. I believe, though, that following the Lords path for your life should not put you in a place of confusion or fear or worry that you are going against the Lords plans, but should bring you peace and comfort that the Lord has it all mapped out for us.

Following the Lord consistently, not conveniently, looks like making your own decisions and allowing the Lord to either leave you continuing on the path you chose, or redirecting it somewhere else. If you allow the Lord to redirect your path, regardless of whether or not you will like the outcome, that is what being a consistent follower of the Lord looks like.

I think back to times where I was turning to the Lord less and less everyday, and how sometimes small interactions with others was a simple reassurance that He was still there. Even though I wasn’t coming to the Lord asking for help with what was burdening me but instead trying to deal with it without His provision, He simply reminded me that I was not alone and that I still had Him by my side.

I think that is the beautiful thing about faith and Christianity. Even when we have a “drive-through” mentality and even when we don’t necessarily go to the Lord first, He is still there waiting for us to come running. He will reveal Himself to us in small ways with our best interest in mind, within the plan He has written for our lives.

But even though the Lord is always there despite our ignorance, I challenge you to try and eliminate the “drive-through” mentality from your mind. If that is something you find yourself struggling with, if you often put convenience over consistency in your faith, then try to be consciously aware of it and encourage yourself to stop. The Lord will never be there for us only when it’s convenient for Him, but He will always be carefully orchestrating every part of our lives. We owe Him the same consistency in return.