Harder to get things done

Have you noticed it is getting harder to get things done these days? Over the weekend we purchased a new television, no big deal right? Wrong! We have been looking at these flat screen tvs for a while. It is quite an experience to shop for a new tv. If you don't know what I mean the next time you are taking your wife out for a bottle of pop down at the service station stop by on the way home and look at tvs somewhere. Try Best Buy, then maybe Sam's or Walmart, but you must end up at H.H. Gregg. There are more tv's than you can make sense out of. LCD HD 720p or 1080 p and plasmas. Sounds like a foreign language, doesn't it? How far do you set away from your tv when you watch? Do you want a 46" or 50" set? Well, I was thinking about something smaller and under $500. What room will you be putting this tv in? Do you have satelite tv or are you on a cable? Cable, oh well you won't get as many stations in HD as you will with the satelite. Would you like to get satelite? No I just came to look at tv's. Well, then how big is this room you are going to be watching tv in? Would you like to see our new sounds systems that will make, well, just come over here and listen. We will knock off $150 the sound systems today if you buy a tv today. No thanks, I just came in to LOOK at tv's. Ok, well just tell me which one you want to look at and if it's not hooked up I will hook it up for you to see. (At this point I am ready to let him hook up something and slip out while he is bent over hooking up the set) But no I stay! It's already gone to long to make this a short story, but we buy a tv after getting the manager to meet a competitor's price. A little bartering saved us over $150! So I say, let me have that 32" LCD HD 720p LG tv. Yes, sir! Let me go to the warehouse and see if we have one! Ok, I'm in it this far, so why not wait. Sure enough they have one and you must have this $20 bottle of cleaner to clean the screen with. OK! Calf rope! I give up, I buy it with the bottle of cleaner.
I just wanted a tv to watch. So we make it home. Guess what? You have to put it together. That's right. They give you 12 screws for 4 holes. I know that will drive you engineer types crazy, but that's what is in the box. So it's together now. Now we have to move this monster of a tv we have. And just where are my sons when I need them? So I take to pillows off the couch put them on the floor and ease the tv on to the pillows. Then we put a sheet under the tv and I drag it while Sandy pushes to get the tv out of the room for now. It was quite a sight watching us move this old heavy tv. So it's getting better. Now we move another little table to put the tv on because the stand we have for the older tv looks funny. Guys you will understand that I am sure. So we have the new tv on the table and now I have six hundred and ninety five cables hanging out the back of the tv stand that doesn't look funny to do something with. So I hook them up and am ready to watch the new tv. But wait! What is this? A book that tells you how to program your tv so you can watch. Wonderful, I just want to see what the Dallas Cowboy game looks like in HD but all I am getting on the screen is NO SIGNAL and it's dancing around. In about 30 minutes I get it all lined out push some magic button and WHAMMO! I have a picture on the screen and it's pretty cool! So much for going into the store and telling the clerk "I believe I'll have that tv right there. He takes my money, loads it up, I bring it home place it on a table plug in it and watch tv. NOOOOOOOOOOOOO! That's not how it is in our modern 2008 world.
It's just harder to get things done now.
And so it is in the church too. Let's not let red tape bog us down in reaching those that need something better than a new tv, but a better life found in Christ.
Maybe next time we can talk about how complicated it is to purchase a new cell phone!