Tag Archives: Consumer

A Season to Wait, A Moment to Move

December 2, 2025 Tom Vander Well 1 Comment

https://open.spotify.com/episode/0XyeWbnBRUl0nN2Hcw2nSm?si=i30A5mFzRluIuJRy3Luy6g

Then the Lord said to me, “You have made your way around this hill country long enough; now turn north.”
Deuteronomy 2:2-3 (NIV)

My company does a lot of customer research. It’s the core of what Intelligentics does. Just this week I’m working on four different customer research projects for clients. Over 30-plus years, it’s been fascinating to have observed how customer expectations have changed. Because of technology and stark generational differences the consumer landscape is changing at a brisk clip. Businesses are wise to invest in listening to their customers.

What has been growing as a key driver of customer expectation and satisfaction are time-related dimensions of service. We have become used to having a world of information at our fingertips. From a consumer perspective, we can do almost anything instantly on the phone in our hand at any time wherever we happen to be. The result? We are an increasingly impatient people. I see it every day in the data our customer research produces.

The impact of these changes is not just on business. It’s impacting life and relationships. It’s having a spiritual impact, as well.

Ever since I surrendered and committed my life to Jesus as a teenager, I have trekked this earthly journey as a faith journey. I am ever seeking the purpose God has for me and the Story He is authoring in it. In doing so, I have learned three important spiritual truths:

Timing is everything.
Waiting is hard.
God’s timing is perfect.

In today’s chapter, Moses continues sharing memories as mentorship to a new generation of Hebrew tribes preparing to enter the Promised Land. On the surface, the text feels a bit stale and boring. When I step back, however, and look at the Story that is being unpacked, it’s rich with these spiritual truths.

He tells of their 38 years of wandering.
Then God says, “It’s time. Turn north. Move.”
There command to move comes with instructions:
Don’t provoke Edom, Moab, or Ammon (they are family, even if estranged). God’s promise comes with boundaries.

Then comes the pivotal pivot:
It’s time to cross the Arnon Gorge—and now, now, God says, “Rise up. I have given Sihon king of Heshbon into your hands.” The battle begins, the land opens, and Israel steps into a season of forward motion after almost four decades of waiting.

Today’s chapter is about restraint, timing, and finally stepping into what God has purposed, planned, and prepared.

Which brings me back to our current world. I tap a screen and groceries appear. Click early enough in the day and the package will be on my porch before dinner. It’s no wonder we expect instant gratification. Technology has so successfully met this desire in so many areas of our lives that its increasingly driving expectation in every aspect of our lives.

How is this going to affect my faith journey? Spiritual formation and spiritual maturity take time. There are no short-cuts. There’s no pharmaceutical for instant wisdom. There is a discipline of Spirit that one learns as you ask, seek, and knock through seasons of waiting and wilderness wanderings. There is a form of obedience that requires restraint rather than action. There is an attentiveness required to be able to respond when the moment finally arrives.

“Turn north. Time to move.”

In the quiet this morning, I find myself reflecting on the many different seasons of waiting I have endured along this faith journey. Memory is a mentor. I’m also meditating on God’s call on me to move into a new season of life right now and all the feelings that stirs in my spirit after so many years of waiting. Finally, I find myself praying for my children and grandchildren, these next generations. I pray God’s grace to embrace the waiting in a world that is increasingly unwilling to do so.

And so, as the new day dawns, I ask for grace to wait well…
and courage to turn north when He whispers, “Now.”

If you know anyone who might be encouraged by today’s post, please share.

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Chapter-a-Day

Devoted to a Bread Maker

September 29, 2016 Tom Vander Well Leave a comment

Their land is filled with silver and gold,
    and there is no end to their treasures;
their land is filled with horses,
    and there is no end to their chariots.
Their land is filled with idols;
    they bow down to the work of their hands,
    to what their own fingers have made.
Isaiah 2:7-8 (NRSV)

Last night Wendy and I were on the couch watching the Cubs game when we were surprised by the doorbell. There was a small group of high school youth from one of our area churches who were on a “bigger or better” scavenger hunt. They had with them a stuffed snowman they had procured from a previous, unsuspecting neighbor. “Do you have anything that’s bigger or better than this that you’d trade for it?” the young people asked.

Our basement storage room (which is quite sizable) is filled with things we are not using and may not even remember we have. So is the garage attic, and the back of the garage. The answer to the young people’s question should really be: “Yes! How many options would you like us to give you among the infinite number of boxes, totes an bins full of things we own but don’t use?”

Then, as Wendy scoured the basement storage and I scoured the garage, the more nagging question became a reality. “What thing, of all this junk I don’t use and forget I even own, am I willing to part with?” It is so intriguing to find how much value we place, not on the object itself, but on the possession of it.

We offered the excited group of young people an old bread maker I found sitting in the garage, and Wendy put our new stuffed snowman with our stack of Christmas decorations. Everyone enjoyed a laugh and we wished the young people well on their scavenger hunt. I wonder what they ended up with.

I thought about last night’s experience as I listened to the prophet Isaiah (I listened to this morning’s chapter being read as I returned from a breakfast appointment this morning) describe the neighboring nations. He described their wealth, their riches and their possessions. They made cast idols and then bowed down “to the work of their hands.”

If find that we in 21st century western culture are quick to be dismissive at the thought of idolatry as described by the ancient prophets. People bowing down to a golden calf or a statue of some animal seems so silly. But, I’m not sure I’m really willing to see the point. What is “worship” but the act of being devoted to something? And what is “devotion” but the giving of time, attention and energy to something?

“…they bow down to the work of their hands.”

How much time, energy ad attention do I devote to the acquisition, maintenance, upkeep, renovation, and storage of “the work of our hands?” Perhaps I am devoted to things made by human hands. Perhaps what was called “idolatry” in 700 B.C., I simply call “success” in a consumerist culture.

This morning I am rolling my own eyes at myself, and the discomfort I feel with the questions I’m asking myself. I don’t like asking myself, “Am I willing to part with this old bread maker sitting in my garage which hasn’t been used in years?” and acknowledging that there’s a small voice in my soul that balks at giving it up. At the same time, I am feeling really good about giving it up and having it out of my garage. Perhaps it’s a mustard seed of change.

Lord, have mercy on this poor soul that bows down to things made with hands.

Chapter-a-Day

Chapter-a-Day Leviticus 17

May 23, 2011 Tom Vander Well 1 Comment

: Image via Wikipedia

This is so the Israelites will bring to God the sacrifices that they’re in the habit of sacrificing out in the open fields. Leviticus 17:5a (MSG)

We are creatures of habit. In fact, we’re selfish creatures of habit. We want things the way we want them, and in a largely consumer-driven economy, we’re used to getting what we want, when we want it, how we want it served. I found out recently that our local body of Jesus followers is eliminating the worship service which Wendy and I have faithfully attended the past several years. It’s become our worship home and an integral part of this leg of our faith journey. We’ve built community there. We’ve connected to God and others there. We’ve grown spiritually and matured there. We’ve served God and others there. Now, our service is being eliminated and two services will be offered at two different times in its place.

The news creates a heady mixture of emotions in me. Frustration and anger are easily identified emotions on the surface, but as I trace the emotions to their roots I find grief and the pain that comes from feeling slighted. I don’t think that this is a bad decision. In fact, I can see that it’s likely to be a good decision long-term for our church as a whole. Nevertheless, like a child I tend to react negatively when decisions are made inconsiderate of how it affects me or makes me feel. We are selfish creatures of habit in a consumer driven society. I’m used to having my feelings and expectations considered in surveys, discussed in focus groups, and catered to in products and services. When something is taken away from us irregardless of our feelings, we tend to get annoyed. Just last night Wendy complained to me about her facial scrub which was recently removed from the market by the people at Neutrogena and replaced with something she doesn’t like. We like what we like and we don’t want someone taking it away.

Even as I process these feelings I am fully aware that a change of course, whether freely chosen or forced upon me, leads to a change in scenery, a new perspective of the landscape, and new vistas which open up on the horizon. I will grieve what I leave behind, but am grateful for the rich seeds of faith this stretch of the journey has planted in me. Those seeds will continue to germinate and bear fruit in the months and years to come. A new course creates new opportunities, new challenges, and offers new promise. That’s exciting.

I think about these things this morning as I imagine the people of Israel who’ve lived their entire lives with no religious structure but those they developed on their own. Their lives in Egypt offered them an open market of gods and idols, sacrifices and practices to choose from. They had gotten used to worshipping whichever god they chose to worship in their tents, in their fields, or among their flocks. They were used to worshipping whichever god they wanted whenever and however they wanted. Now, Moses had forcefully delivered God’s religious rule book and it demanded that they only offer sacrifices to the one true God, whose name was so holy it could not be uttered, at one specified place in the prescribed fashion. I’m sure there was a large and angry outcry from among the people. We are, after all, selfish creatures of habit.

Today, I am at once grieving the loss that change brings and excited for the opportunity which it promises.