God Is Inefficient

March 12

Read: Acts 18:1-17

People today worship efficiency as a virtue. The quest for “faster” and “more efficient” is relentless. But is efficiency truly a “value”? Think of our lives today. By all rights, we should be the most “at ease” and freed up people of all time. Take any basic task and imagine the efficiency and ease with which we can now perform compared to 200 years ago. We have machines that wash our clothes. We have other machines that make our coffee. We have an instant “fire” with the turn of a knob to cook our food. We can drive to a store and purchase a steak to throw on the grill without having to butcher or skin any animal. We can hop in a car and cover distances that took people days or even months to cover just a century ago. We have increased the ease and efficiency of life in so many ways compared to those before us… we should have the most free time in human history! The least hurried people in the history of people. Are we? Where has our worship of efficiency gotten us? When will the promised “utopia” come? Maybe when we finally have our “self driving cars”… LOL… what a joke.

God does not care about efficiency.

God can be terribly inefficient at times. We see this here with Paul. Look at what the Lord says to him: “And the Lord said to Paul one night in a vision, “Do not be afraid, but go on speaking and do not be silent, for I am with you, and no one will attack you to harm you, for I have many in this city who are my people.” (v.9-10) It is subtle, but there. Particularly at the end when he says, “I have many in this city who are my people”. Do you think Paul was tempted to ask, “so who are they? These “many people”. Can I have a list? Do you want to tell me where they are? I mean I am going to the synagogue each day reasoning with whoever shows up while working a normal job tent making. It would really speed things up if you just sent me a list… told me where they lived… maybe just gave some sort of “mark” so I can figure who the one’s you were calling to yourself were. It would save me a lot of time and make this so much more efficient if you shared with me a little more of what you already know!” Do you see it? God does not care about efficiency the way that we do.

Imagine the argument that could be made. It would sound so “spiritual” too! I can hear it now: “Well it would speed up the process if you just told me, we could get things done and move on to the next city sooner… potentially meaning reaching more people. You want to reach more people right Lord?” I wonder if we would even try to use the bible in our argument? “You know Lord, Jesus even said the ‘fields are ripe but the workers are few’… we need to maximize the efficiency of our workers in the field! This way of doing things… it is just taking too much time.” Imagine how shocked one might be to find out that this sort of “sound reasoning” was actually working against the will of the Lord. God is quite ok with the slower and less “efficient” at times.

Paul was there in Corinth for a year and a half this time. Sure, if God would have dropped some extra money he could have opted out of tent making and had more time for evangelism… but God didn’t do that. He let Paul work. This stretched out the time he was there evangelizing. God never gave Paul a list, he simply had to faithfully and obediently share the good news of Christ with those that came across his path and the Lord led him to share with them. This was a slow process. It took time. God loves the process. He always has.

God could instantly make us perfect when we accept Christ, and yet he opts to sanctify us over time. He loves the process. It is arguably more “efficient” for God to instantly just have whomever he wants to respond to his Son Jesus supernaturally … and yet he works through US. God is working through US… his PEOPLE… humans… people with willing souls and weak bodies. WE ARE TERRIBLY INEFFICIENT compared to God… and yet this is HIS WILL … to work through us. He loves the process. Sure it might be easier or quicker if he did it a different way… but God does not always chose “easier and quicker”. God does not worship “efficiency” like we do. Maybe we need to rethink what WE worship. There is a great deal that is not efficient about following Christ. Giving of yourself to others is not always “efficient”. Friendship can be very “inefficient”. Loving your enemy… giving to those in need… taking time to “mourn with those who mourn and rejoice with those who rejoice… these things are not “quick and easy”… they do not make life more “efficient”. As tough as it may be at times, are you willing to embrace the inefficiency? Are you ready to trust the process? God says to us: “Do not be afraid, but go on speaking and do not be silent, for I am with you…” Do not fear the “inefficiency”. Embrace the so called “waste of time”. It is actually all part of the process. The work. The meals. The unforeseen moments. All of it. Our modern rat-race life may not be the source of life after all! Love you guys. - JDP