Ease Makes The Heart Grow Fonder

If you had asked me, when I moved to Las Vegas, to rate my love for pro football on a scale of 1-10 I would have said 9. For college football I would have said a 7. Today? The NFL has moved down to an 8, and college up to an 8.

Why? Because I used to have my kid’s soccer or baseball games on Saturdays, which made it hard to follow the college games – but that’s not the case anymore. And in our pacific timezone NFL games start at 10 am, and we have church from 10 to 1, so I miss the whole first set of NFL games. And, to my surprise, I’ve found my heart changing a bit over the last few years.

Does this matter? Yeah. Because it’s not just about football. I think it’s just easier to love something that’s easier to love. In their book Switch, Chip and Dan Heath write how studies show that one of the key factors in people changing their behaviors (and lives) is convenience. It’s not just having a change of mind and a change of heart, it’s also making it easier to do what you want to do. (For instance, putting your sneakers out the night before will help you live out your commitment to jog in the morning.)

So do you want to love Jesus more? Part of it is making it more convenient to do the kinds of things that grow your heart for Him? How could you make it more convenient for you to pray? To read your Bible? To tithe? To serve? To share your faith? Instead of trying to will yourself to more love, why not just make it more convenient, and you might be surprised to find your heart changing…