The Cost of Convenience

This week we are at church camp- an adventure we dearly love!  However, one small problem at camp is that snacks are not always readily available (and face it- no camp canteen has healthy snacks).  This would usually be a great chance to exercise self-discipline in my eating habits, but currently my body is busy making “heart milk” (as (a) calls it) for (b) and I am pretty much starving all the time.  Wanting to plan ahead, I made a little shopping trip before leaving for camp to stock up on some healthy (or at least high in calcium and protein) snacks.  I wanted things that would be easy and require no prep, after all I don’t have access to the kitchen, nor did I want to drag my entire kitchen with me. 

As I shopped for snacks that met my requirement list, I was reminded of one thing in particular… convenience can be very costly.  It is much cheaper to buy a block of cheese than to get individual packs of string cheese- but a block of cheese then requires a knife and a baggie to put it in once it is cut up.  I’m usually a pretty frugal gal, so the block of cheese is my normal route, but as I mentioned earlier, for this trip I put emphasis on convenience.  For string cheese and individual chocolate milk bottles, I was willing to pay the price.  However, there are other conveniences where I’m just not willing to pay the price.

I was not exactly convenient to come to camp with a 4 week old baby and a still sore body, but the price for staying home would be missing out on being used by God in the lives of the campers this week.  That was a price I’m not willing to pay.  It is not convenient to give up sleep, plan lessons, and juggle a small amount of teen drama, but the price for avoiding that would be missing out on answering important faith questions and the chance to mentor teens in their faith- that is a price (A) and I aren’t willing to pay.

It is handy when life is convenient, but it comes with a cost.  While I’ll pay for string cheese, some cost is just not worth it.  It wasn’t convenient for Jesus to go to the cross, but then my sin wouldn’t have been covered, and I thank God every day that leaving me in my sin is a price he wasn’t willing to pay.

I’m so glad Jesus took the road that wasn’t convenient… and for this week we are too!  Please keep praying throughout this week for our amazing campers and faculty at this week of camp.