The Real Problem is the Convenience of Milk
Yesterday I was driving home and I saw her. Let’s call her Betsy. She’s a cow. I see her and all of the rest of the herd every day when I drive home. I like living in town and yet driving by a farm like that. I like seeing Betsy on my way home from work.
But yesterday when I saw her I was not thinking of the beautiful farm or the pleasant animals. Instead, I was thinking about how easy it is for us to get milk these days. You see, I don’t have to get it from Betsy. I don’t have to milk her at 4 a.m. I don’t have to purify the milk or prepare it or bottle it or even chill it. I just go to the supermarket and less than three dollars gets me a whole gallon. When I thought about how easy it is to get milk I realized that the convenience of something can lead to a lot of problems.
Convenience leads to a lack of appreciation. You know the only time we really appreciate milk? When we go to the store before a snow is about to hit and we want to get our skim, or 1%, or 2%, or whole milk just like we like it – and it’s gone! There’s been a run on milk, you know, because the meteorologist said we might get a dusting. And now all the sudden, where is our precious milk? Never mind the fact that while we were on a recent vacation we returned home to throw out the milk that went out of date in the fridge while we were away. In a spiritual sense that’s how we often treat our freedom to assemble, or speak, or worship, or practice what we believe. We might not appreciate it unless it was suddenly removed.
Convenience leads to a lack of dedication. Have you ever been to a dairy? I have friends in Iowa who still run a dairy and guess what? There are certain times of day that you just aren’t going to see them. But the cows will see them! It won’t matter if it’s sleeting, raining, snowing, hailing, or 110 degrees – they will be milking those cows. Do you think dairy farmers have lots of vacation time? Do you think they just do what they want to do when they want to do it? Or are they on a schedule that is tighter than a miser in the middle of the depression? Operating a dairy means serious dedication. What if we could only buy milk a couple times a day? Would we go to the store then? We go when we please! But the brethren meet only a few times a week – I think you get the point. How dedicated are we to receiving the spiritual sustenance that only comes from such assemblies?
Convenience leads to a lack of maturation. We never had to work at all for the first milk we ever drank. It was provided by God through our wonderful mothers. In reality, all we had to do was cry to get some. And in those instances, who was really in charge? The infant! The immature child! The baby! If we wanted milk we got it, and nobody asked a whole lot of questions. Is the same true when it comes to the milk of the Word? How many of us want to be spoon-fed the Bible but won’t study on our own? How many churches expect preachers to have Masters Degrees in Bible but are willing to have members who don’t know the difference between the Old Testament and the New? And how many churches are willing to cry for milk and never exercise their spiritual minds enough to leave the milk altogether and have a steak every once in a while?
You see Betsy is not the problem. She’s just a cow. But the problem is that her milk no longer takes any effort for most of us to receive. So I’m thankful for dairy farmers! And I’m thankful for hardworking spiritually-minded, Bible reading and teaching Christians! And I’m thankful for every gallon of milk I have ever bought from the store. And I am thankful for every spiritual lesson I ever was ever taught from the preacher or Bible class teacher.
And somewhere in this viewing of Betsy the cow – I thought to myself…Maybe I need to go milk a cow?! I bet the milk would taste so much better…
“For though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you again the first principles of the oracles of God; and you have come to need milk and not solid food. For everyone who partakes only of milk is unskilled in the word of righteousness, for he is a babe. But solid food belongs to those who are of full age, that is, those who by reason of use have their senses exercised to discern both good and evil.” – Hebrews 5:12-14.
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AUTHOR: Jeremiah Tatum
