SHORTCUTS

My wife and I have some long time friends who have two grown daughters. Each of the girls has request of their mother that they have the tableware which they grew up using at each meal. It is a sentimental thing, nothing fancy or of great monetary value, just both just want to remember their childhood.

So our friend, Sandy by name, has been scanning the internet to find pieces of the same pattern to provide a full set of tableware for each girl. This particular pattern has wooden handles for the knives, forks and spoons. In her search she has been successful in finding matching pieces, but some of them are in very poor condition, mainly in that the wooden handles are split. Sandy asked her mother why were was her set still in fairly good shape while so many others she had found were in such poor condition. Sandy's mother replied, "Think about it, dear. For the thirty five years you have had your set, how did you wash it?" Of course, Sandy had washed her tableware by hand. The split pieces she had found on the internet were washed in a dish washer, causing the wooden handles to break down.

When my wife told me this story, my first thought was that shortcuts are not always the best way to go. I would say, especially in spiritual matters. The very thing that we seek to obtain or achieve in our spiritual lives and our walk with the Lord Jesus Christ, may be damaged or lost due to a shortcut. In short, you just can't shortcut God.

Jesus didn't shortcut the woman at the well in John 4. She wanted the water that would satisfy her thirst forever, but Jesus made sure that she saw her most important need. "Go call thy husband, and come hither." There are no shortcuts when dealing with people about salvation.