Do You Treat God Like a Starbucks?

I have always wondered why spirituality is such a touchy topic for a lot of Christians. It's almost as if Christians don't want to talk about "spirituality" because they feel that it will offend, draw a line, or alienate people. I feel that many people have specifically left churches because of this simple issue. In the church we talk about how we want to have "authentic faith" and we don't want to be fake. But if this were the case, why do we treat spirituality, faith, our walk with God like we do a Starbuck's line?

We wouldn't think twice about going into, or driving through a Starbucks shop and getting our daily dose of caffine. I wouldn't even think twice about meeting an old friend over coffee. I mean we can order drinks in sizes from  tall, to grande, to venti. We can get our coffee hot, or iced depending on how we like it. It really doesn't even seem to matter if you want to mix it up a little. All you have to do is ask your friendly service clerk if they can make a drink with (fill in the blank). We are so used to this that for many Americans we make a special trip every day for our coffee. I mean I attend Multnomah, and our coffee shop has people in their all day ordering coffee. It's so amazing to me that this is what our society has come to.

WHY ARE OUR SPIRITUAL LIVES SO DEAD????

I would like to make an observation. Could it be that we are spiritually dead because we don't take God as seriously as we do all of our other daily tasks such as cofee? I mean if we would wake up early so that we could go and have few minutes to spend with God each day, I honestly believe that we would see God's presence more than we do today.

I also think that another reason for our spiritual deadness is LAZINESS!! In America we like everything to be easy. It's getting so bad that we can't even go into a restarurant and get our food anymore. Instead we just sit in our cars and wait in a line and order our food via a computer, and our butts never leaving our car seat. I THINK that some of us are spiritually dead because we treat our relationship with God like we do everything else. We want GOD to come to us, to help us when we get ourselves into a mess we can't get out of, to bring us our spiritual blessings, to use us where we are (but please don't make me move God). This is the sad reality of so many Christians!

Sure we would never say this outloud, but this is how we feel. We feel like we are good people because we have God in our lives. or because we participate in our church's small group ministry, or we don't do drugs. Yet I can't help but think that this isn't the way God intended for it to be. I mean the people who seem to be moving in the ways of God are the people who make time for HIM! They wake up at the crack of dawn to go on a prayer walk, or they spend time DAILY reading the word of God, or even better yet, they live their lives with the mind-set that God is/can/ and they are ready for HIM to use them that day!!

I'm not saying we are bad people, I'm just saying we really need to decide if we take our relaionship with God seriously.

Do you treat God like a Starbucks? I mean do you have such an addiction to God that you are willing to wake up early to be with him, or make appointments with Him?(We will meet an old friend over coffee anyday, but we won't meet with God daily!)