Why Is This So Hard?

As I was reading in Matthew and Exodus last week I wrote down a question that has caused me to think deeply about my reactions to the things around me:

   Why do we think that doing what God asks us to do will be easy?

Moses understood the monstrous task he was being given even as he tried to run away from God's calling.  But even though God enabled the miraculous to be done through him, Moses had a tough time.  He dealt with a people who grumbled constantly (or so it seemed).  They traveled through, and lived in, a vast desert.  He had to deal with the various interpersonal issues the community had.  He constantly sought out the directions of God and followed them, even when the community rebelled in his absence.  God never told Moses it would be easy.  God just promised He had a plan to free the Israelites.

When Jesus told the disciples he would have to die and be raised to life,  Peter rebuked Jesus (imagine that!) and said this isn't going to happen. Jesus' response was that if anyone would follow him, he must deny himself, take up his cross and follow me.  That doesn't sound easy.  Peter, like us, want to believe that the way of God is an easy road of joy, worship and love all tied up in a nice little community where nothing bad ever happens.  This is at the best naive and at the worst complete denial of the reality of life and human nature. Jesus never told Peter it would be easy, but that he had a plan for new life.

There will always be obstacles, enemies, difficult situations, grumbling people, hard choices and failures that get in the way of doing what God asks us to do.  But we do not quit or give up when these things happen.  We understand our calling the way Paul did:

"We are hard pressed on every side, but not crushed;

perplexed, but not in despair;

persecuted, but not abandoned;

struck down, but not destroyed....

Therefore, we do not lose heart.  Though outwardly

we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being

renewed every day."  (2 Cor 4:8,9,16)

Living the life of Jesus is not always easy.  Jesus never said it would be.  But we do have forgiveness through the cross, life through the resurrection and power through the Holy Spirit.  I think that gets us through the tough times.