I just returned from an amazing mission trip to Ukraine with the Singing Men of Texas. I don’t just toss that word “amazing” out lightly. We took a team of 170 people from across the state of Texas and did a concert/preaching tour across western Ukraine. Between April 22-30, we sang 12 concerts in 8 cities to a combined audience of over 14,000 and saw over 7700 registered decisions for Christ.
Yeah, that kind of amazing.
If you’ve read my blog for any length of time, you know that I find inspiration everywhere. It doesn’t take much to get my “ponder-er” going. I’ll probably be sharing some reflections from this trip over the next several weeks—not in any kind of sequential series—just as I think of spiritual applications from some traveling observations.
One of the things I noticed on this trip is that some burdens are almost universal, at least in developed nations. One of the universal burdens is road construction. One day we traveled 3 hours by bus to drive 80 miles to a concert. Did you catch that? Three hours to go 80 miles! I’m pretty sure this was the worst paved road I have ever seen. After the concert, we got back on the bus and made the return trip! Six hours on 160 miles of really bad road! Sounds like the beginnings of a Ukrainian Country Song by Blake Sheltonskov.
In the city of Kiev, I found another section of road under construction. This one was a cobblestone street in front of the Cathedral of Saint Andrew. The cathedral was constructed from 1744-1767.
I looked at the way the new cobblestones were laid out waiting for the cement grouting process and thought, “Oh, my goodness! This little section is going to take forever. Wouldn’t it be better to just put down some asphalt pavement?”
Then I found out the age of the street they were replacing. The previous cobblestones had only lasted 300 years! Can you imagine 300 year old asphalt? Holy potholes!
Certainly it would be much more “efficient” to put down asphalt. It could probably be done in a day or two. But it’s hard to argue with the “effectiveness” of cobblestones. It might take longer. It might slow the driving speed a bit. But it also allows for a more deliberate and thoughtful pace, taking in the beauty of the trip, rather than simply rushing to the destination.
Efficiency that is not the servant of effectiveness is highly overrated. Sometimes God puts some speed bumps in the road to call us to greater focus and effectiveness. Efficiency may take us farther faster and help us to do things right. Effectiveness makes sure we are going in the right direction and doing the right things.
Efficiency that is not the servant of effectiveness is highly overrated. Click To Tweet
Our lives matter so much to God that the experience of the journey matters as much as the pace at which we move toward our destination. Corrie ten Boom said, “When God send us on rocky paths, He gives us strong shoes.”
Maybe that was His purpose in the first place.
Question: Where have you sacrificed effectiveness for the sake of efficiency?
