{"id":39279,"date":"2018-04-30T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2018-04-30T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/preaching\/sermon-illustrations\/tyranny-of-convenience\/"},"modified":"2018-04-30T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2018-04-30T00:00:00","slug":"tyranny-of-convenience","status":"publish","type":"sermon-illustrations","link":"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/preaching\/sermon-illustrations\/tyranny-of-convenience\/","title":{"rendered":"The Tyranny of Convenience"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Law professor and technology expert Tim Lu claims that there&#39;s an underestimated force that drives our daily lives&mdash;convenience. We want nearly everything about our lives to be convenient, efficient, and easy. Wu calls convenience &quot;the most powerful force shaping our individual lives and our economies.&quot; He writes:<\/p>\n\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\">\n<p>As Evan Williams, a co-founder of Twitter, recently put it, &quot;Convenience decides everything.&quot; Convenience seems to make our decisions for us, trumping what we like to imagine are our true preferences. (I prefer to brew my coffee, but Starbucks instant is so convenient I hardly ever do what I &quot;prefer.&quot;) Easy is better, easiest is best.<\/p>\n\n<\/blockquote>\n\n<p>Of course there are benefits to some of life&#39;s conveniences, but he also warns that there can be a dark side. Wu argues:<\/p>\n\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\">\n<p>With its promise of smooth, effortless efficiency, it threatens to erase the sort of struggles and challenges that help give meaning to life. Created to free us, it can become a constraint on what we are willing to do, and thus in a subtle way it can enslave us &hellip; When we let convenience decide everything, we surrender too much.<\/p>\n\n<\/blockquote>\n\n<p><em>Possible Preaching Angles: <strong>Discipleship; Disciples<\/strong>&mdash;Jesus did not offer convenience in following him. He warned us to count the cost and at times to do what is inconvenient in order to follow him<\/em>.<\/p>","protected":false},"author":30,"featured_media":0,"template":"","tax_ctp_audience":[],"tax_ctp_authors":[],"tax_ctp_categories":[165],"tax_ctp_format":[171],"tax_ctp_illustration_types":[409],"tax_ctp_multimedia":[],"tax_ctp_point_editor":[446],"tax_publications":[140],"tax_ctp_tags":[3376,3651,3687,3747,3782,3792,3793,3847,4112,4349,4916,4999,5000,5043,5293],"tax_ctp_topics":[],"class_list":["post-39279","sermon-illustrations","type-sermon-illustrations","status-publish","hentry","tax_publications-ct-pastors","tax_ctp_tags-action","tax_ctp_tags-complacency","tax_ctp_tags-convenience","tax_ctp_tags-decision-making","tax_ctp_tags-diligence","tax_ctp_tags-disciples","tax_ctp_tags-discipleship","tax_ctp_tags-effort","tax_ctp_tags-habits","tax_ctp_tags-laziness","tax_ctp_tags-self-discipline","tax_ctp_tags-sloth","tax_ctp_tags-slothfulness","tax_ctp_tags-spiritual-discipline","tax_ctp_tags-work"],"acf":{"scripture_references":[{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null}]},"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v22.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>The Tyranny of Convenience - CT Pastors<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/preaching\/sermon-illustrations\/tyranny-of-convenience\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The Tyranny of Convenience - CT Pastors\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Law professor and technology expert Tim Lu claims that there&#039;s an underestimated force that drives our daily lives&mdash;convenience. 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