We do not want you to become lazy, but to imitate those who through faith and patience inherit what has been promised. Hebrews 6:12

Yesterday and today have to be two of the hottest days on record for this time of year. It’s like a sauna out there. As soon as you set foot outside the door the heat and humidity hit you like a sledge hammer. The weather bug station at Cedar Point Elementary School is reading 96.3 degrees right now with a heat index of 104. Whatever your view of global warming, let me tell you one thing I know for sure, this part of the globe is pretty warm.

Yesterday the pastoral team had a working lunch down at Lin’s China Bistro in the Harris Teeter shopping center. We usually go out to lunch on Monday after staff meeting to discuss church issues and reconnect after a busy weekend of ministry but due to the Memorial Day holiday, we moved it to Tuesday. We finished up lunch and headed back out into the parking lot and as we approached Bob’s car he said, “Uh oh!” His front right tire was flat as a pancake.

I was sweating just thinking about changing a tire in 90 degree heat, but Bob quickly popped open his trunk and began to extract the necessary equipment- tire jack, lug wrench….

Before he could get any further, I called out, “Don’t change the tire. I’ll get some ‘Fix-a-Flat!”

Bob paused for a moment, “Fix-a-What?”

“Fix-a-Flat.” I said. “It’s a can of gooey stuff you inject into your tire through the inflation valve. It coats the inside of the tire, seals the flat and inflates the tire. I’ve gone thousands of miles on the stuff before. It’s great. Go back into the air conditioning. I’ll get some at Harris Teeter and be right back.”

The guys didn’t argue too much, it being so hot and all, and I trekked down to Harris Teeter, picked up 2 cans of Fix-a-Flat and set about… fixing the flat.

“There ya’ go” I said, confidently smacking the tire after injecting the second can. “Head on back to the church and it should seal up just fine.” Bob thanked me, started the engine, pulled out of his parking spot and headed out of the lot. After traveling about 45 feet the rest of us were yelling, jumping and waving our arms trying to get him to stop. The tire leak was in the sidewall and after every rotation of the tire a little squirt of gooey stuff was jetting out of the hole and landing on the pavement. Spurt, spurt, spurt. Fix-a-Flat was not going to fix this flat.

Bob pulled back over and John shucked off his shirt, whipped out the tools and had Bob’s tire changed in about half the time it took for me to go to Harris Teeter, plunk down $14 for two cans of useless Fix-a-Flat and fiddle with getting it into the tire. I was like, “Dawg, John… you can really change a tire!”

As I drove back to the church, I got to thinking about short cuts. And you know what? Most of the time they just aren’t. Often In an attempt to save time and money we end up spending twice the effort and resources or more for the failed shortcut and then backtracking to do it the right way.

Beyond the practical, I think this also applies to the spiritual dimension as well. Most people soon discover that there are no shortcut to raising godly kids, developing intimacy with our spouse, a closer dependence on God or whatever God is calling us to do. In a society with fast food, ever-faster internet connections and instant access to almost anything we want, when we want it; it’s easy to lose patience with God’s kingdom agenda. “I tried that and it didn’t work” we often say; but did we really give ourselves to God unreservedly or were we just looking for a short cut to fix our immediate problem and get us out of the heat?

God’s kingdom agenda for us doesn’t include short cuts. It does involve surrendering our desire for instant results and trusting that God’s ways are always best even if that means a bit more sweat.