"Live deep instead of fast."

Live deep instead of fast.
I wonder -- does anyone today even have a choice? Everyday some trinket of technology enters the market as new and improved, smaller and faster.
I take photographs now without having to wait to see them -- in the instant I click the shutter the image pops up on the little screen on the back of my camera. Only a couple of years ago I still sensed the thrill of anticipation as I worked to finish a roll of film, turn it in for processing and then rush to the dark room to make the prints -- sometimes doing them over and over to get just the right contrast or colors -- and finally being rewarded with a "perfect" print.
All aspects of life in America are like that. Even relationships. All of these progressive improvements in life are making us less patient. We want instant gratification, instant change, instant forgiveness, instant relief from pain, instant removal of consequences -- not only are we less patient about these things, but we have grown a sense of entitlement to these things somehow. Instead of taking the Psalm 139 prayer and looking deep inside -- "search me, O God, and know my heart, try me, and know my anxious thoughts. See if there be any wicked way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting." -- we fool ourselves into believing that we deserve to be relieved of guilt, and lose sight of the value of waiting on God, searching deep in our hearts for the guilt, and going through the arduous process of repentance. "Oh! must I go through that valley again -- I was just there! Can't I take a short cut? a by-pass? and get what I want now? Can't I put a band-aid on the wound and move on?"
But it's the deep things that make us grow deeper still, expand our horizons, affect real change, bring the greatest rewards, lead us to real joy -- all of which are gifts of grace, not something we have a right to at all.
So, live deep, not fast. Stop and look at the orchids. Stop and smell the roses. Stop and look deep in your heart and accept the loving discipline of the heavenly Father, no matter how long it takes -- so that you may find the richness of a joyful life.