Nowhere in the Bible do we see that following God is easy. World changing is hard work. Restoring hope is not for the faint of heart. Rebuilding lives from the rubble of sin is no easy task.
As John Ortberg says, “In the Bible, God never gives anyone an easy job. God never comes to Abraham, or Moses, or Esther and says, ‘I’d like you to do me a favor, but it really shouldn’t take much time. I wouldn’t want to inconvenience you.’ God does not recruit like someone from the PTA. He is always intrusive, demanding, exhausting. He says we should expect that the world will be hard, and that our assignments will be hard.” (Soul Keeping: Caring For the Most Important Part of You)
I think many of us assume that if we are on the right path, doing the right thing, and honoring God then things should go more smoothly. We even question whether or not we are in God’s will when things start meeting resistance. What kind of New Testament would we have inherited if Paul viewed his calling that way: Shipwrecked three times, attacked by angry mobs, beaten with rods, whipped with 39 lashes five times, stoned and left for dead, starved, betrayed by friends, imprisoned for two years without a trial—all for being faithful to God’s call on his life?
Paul’s response was, “Everyone who wants to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted…” (2 Timothy 3:12) and we must learn to “endure hardships like a good soldier of Christ Jesus.” (2 Timothy 2:3)
American poet Lucy Larcom wrote, “… it is the greatest of all mistakes to begin life with the expectation that it is going to be easy, or with the wish to have it so.”
Remember the words of that great theologian, Tom Hanks?
“It’s supposed to be hard. If it wasn’t hard everyone would do it. The hard is what makes it great.” (A League of Their Own)
The sooner we come to grips with the fact that it is supposed to be hard, the better equipped we are to be about God’s world changing business of redeeming brokenness, restoring the walls of hope, and rebuilding lives that have been ruined by sin.
The hard is what makes it great!
(Adapted from my upcoming book: Shapers)