A Lesson About Ordering The WRONG Item Online

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I love ordering things over the internet. It is such great way to purchase things and have them conveniently delivered. You can find pretty much anything online from anywhere in the world. Although this is an amazing thing, I made a mistake that had a wonderful lesson attached to it.

I got an email from a company I had never heard of who were offering 10 ft long Apple phone/iPad cables which seemed like a good idea and something I had been looking for. I proceeded to order them and actually got a wonderful price so I was excited to see my cables in a very speedy timeframe, being used to ordering from Amazon and deliveries taking about two days. In about two days I received an email from the company which I thought was great, but wondered why I hadn’t received my cables yet. The email said that the company was excited that my order was on its way...from mainland china! The email proceeded to say that the didn’t know when the cables would get to me for sure and that they appreciated my business. I thought to myself, “Well, it may be another month before I have these things in my hands” and felt a little deceived.

While checking the mail about three weeks later my cables had finally arrived! I was so excited to finally use the items I had purchased almost a year ago (in my mind). I opened the package and noticed that they were the WRONG CABLES! They were micro USB cables and not the kind that my Apple products use! That was it. I was so angry and began crafting my verbal assault via email to let the company know how disgusted I was at the deception on their website concerning shipping as well as sending me the wrong items! I went back to the email I had received earlier with the contact information on it for the company and noticed a tiny little factoid. I had actually ordered the wrong cables and not the Apple ones. All of the sudden I felt like an idiot.

How many times in life do we proceed without thinking and not “count the cost” of either things we order online, relationships that we have in life, career decisions or even more importantly, our relationship with Jesus? The Bible has a portion of scripture in Luke 14 that talks about following Jesus and the importance of getting the bigger picture before making rash decisions. For me, it was reading an email that my potential product would be coming from china and that I needed to simply make sure the cables were compatible with my devices.

When we count the cost of all areas in life, we will live a productive and healthy life especially when it comes to our relationship to Jesus. That is one thing that I appreciate about Jesus and the Bible. He was not about tricking people into following him and only about telling the truth about what he had to offer compared to where people were living their lives. Even today, we do not need to try and trick or coheres people into a relationship with God. We just need to live a “cost-counted” life and take opportunity when people ask us why we have love, success and purpose in life.
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Live a life today that reflects the conscious decision to follow Jesus and believe that he is taking care of you in every area of life. Decide to follow the Bible’s teaching and ask the Holy Spirit to help you understand it for your life. You can do it and we are praying for you!