Professor & author Alan Jacobs recently made the decision to do something I’ve considered multiple times before: stop doing business with Amazon. Jacobs, a professor at Baylor and formerly at Wheaton College, has been on my radar since the mid-90’s through his appearances on the Mars Hill Audio Journal. He’s a thoughtful writer who examines – deeply – issues related to the intersection of faith and culture. His reasons for stopping the flow of money to Amazon can be found in a blog post here.

My reasons for cutting ties with Amazon over the years have shared some common threads with those outlined by Alan Jacobs. There’s also the issue of smaller merchants being either unable to compete on their own, or having to sacrifice overhead to use Amazon as their storefront. And, more recently, I’ve become convicted of my own reckless stewardship practices propelled by the ease of 1-click ordering and Prime delivery.

I just checked, and I’ve been an Amazon customer since 1997. Somewhat ironically, my first order consisted of 3 books discussed on the Mars Hill Audio Journal (or the Mars Hill Tapes, as they were known at the time). I think I’ve been a Prime member pretty much since the program was introduced. I purchase a crazy variety of stuff from Amazon, from USB cables to vitamins. Not being a fan of Apple’s walled garden approach, I also purchase digital music from Amazon, though I don’t use their cloud service for storage or playing – I download and store the content locally. And admittedly, I have recently shifted from a Kindle to a Kobo reader, converting my books to epub format in the process, so that books can’t potentially be deleted by Amazon if Amazon should decide they know better than me what I should be reading.

So why haven’t I simply cut ties with Amazon?

Convenience. Pure and simple. One-stop shopping and quick delivery promise to be elixirs for my malnourished soul. My problem is that, increasingly, I’m seeing blurred lines between my needs and wants.

I’m not suggesting that there aren’t legitimate benefits to having a wide array of useful and niche products available. My smallish town has very limited retail outlets with limited product categories, and I’m grateful to have additional options. The array of products easily available would have been staggering my 1986 self.

And yet, here I am, convicted yet again about my relationship with Amazon. Maybe it’s the season of Lent that has me questioning my relentless focus upon myself. I’m not sure. But it’s a question worthy of prayerful reflection, and this seems like the perfect season for it.