This recliner looks so comfortable. Lounging in it on a sunny day – could it get much better?
I’m accustomed to seeing curbside furniture in my neighborhood in
Friedrichshain, but this piece seemed to be intentionally sitting under the shade of this tree.
Days passed, and the easy chair remained under the tree’s branches in the park near my residence. Then one day it was gone.
It could be that a family took it to put in their living room. But if nobody had claimed it, it still wouldn't last.
This comfy chair wasn't made to be outside. After a few rains, it would mold and rot. Or perhaps, mice would make their homes inside, or birds take the soft filling for their nests.
There are quite a few people searching after comfort, pleasure and convenience, but at what cost? Does this quest at some point become destructive?
I don't believe that comfort, pleasure or convenience, in and of themselves, are bad. If given a choice, I favor a pleasurable experience over an unpleasant one.
But if I only searched after short-term comfort, what long-term losses might I have?
I remember talking to a friend of mine, who is an atheist. We were talking about my faith, and I was telling her that it wasn’t easy to be a Christian.
“But if it doesn’t make your life easier, why believe?” she asked me.
It was a good question and one that caused me to pause and reflect. Even Jesus himself said that our lives as Christians would be laden with difficulties.
"In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world,” He says in John 16:33, as He addresses his disciples.
Then I realized it is eternal hope that makes faith worth it. That in the end, Jesus overcomes and gives us an everlasting inheritance with Him.
I believe in something lasting, something that won’t rot or fade away.
“It is harder, but it is better,” I told her.
Whoever owned this chair may have thought that taking the recliner outside would be a lot easier and less costly than going to the store and buying a lawn chair. Hauling it outside was less work than taking the time to build a park bench. There was less risk and less labor, and the recliner was much softer than a park
bench would be.
At the end of the day or maybe even a century, though, the park bench might still be there, offering a refuge for the weary or those who just want to spend a few moments sitting out of the sun's rays. It may not be as comfortable, but it was designed to last.
What about you? Have you placed a “recliner” outside? Have you taken the easy way out at times and missed the greater good? Where might you invest in something eternal rather than temporal?
I’m accustomed to seeing curbside furniture in my neighborhood in
Friedrichshain, but this piece seemed to be intentionally sitting under the shade of this tree.
Days passed, and the easy chair remained under the tree’s branches in the park near my residence. Then one day it was gone.
It could be that a family took it to put in their living room. But if nobody had claimed it, it still wouldn't last.
This comfy chair wasn't made to be outside. After a few rains, it would mold and rot. Or perhaps, mice would make their homes inside, or birds take the soft filling for their nests.
There are quite a few people searching after comfort, pleasure and convenience, but at what cost? Does this quest at some point become destructive?
I don't believe that comfort, pleasure or convenience, in and of themselves, are bad. If given a choice, I favor a pleasurable experience over an unpleasant one.
But if I only searched after short-term comfort, what long-term losses might I have?
I remember talking to a friend of mine, who is an atheist. We were talking about my faith, and I was telling her that it wasn’t easy to be a Christian.
“But if it doesn’t make your life easier, why believe?” she asked me.
It was a good question and one that caused me to pause and reflect. Even Jesus himself said that our lives as Christians would be laden with difficulties.
"In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world,” He says in John 16:33, as He addresses his disciples.
Then I realized it is eternal hope that makes faith worth it. That in the end, Jesus overcomes and gives us an everlasting inheritance with Him.
I believe in something lasting, something that won’t rot or fade away.
“It is harder, but it is better,” I told her.
Whoever owned this chair may have thought that taking the recliner outside would be a lot easier and less costly than going to the store and buying a lawn chair. Hauling it outside was less work than taking the time to build a park bench. There was less risk and less labor, and the recliner was much softer than a park
bench would be.
At the end of the day or maybe even a century, though, the park bench might still be there, offering a refuge for the weary or those who just want to spend a few moments sitting out of the sun's rays. It may not be as comfortable, but it was designed to last.
What about you? Have you placed a “recliner” outside? Have you taken the easy way out at times and missed the greater good? Where might you invest in something eternal rather than temporal?
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