The Big Easy

I'm a big fan of easy.  I'm always looking for the easy way to cook, clean, fix things, etc.  Most of the time, I can even make life easy.   Easy is always available.  You have a task at hand that looks difficult, walk into Lowe's or Target or Walmart and you're likely to find a product that will make it easier for you.  Even if there is not a product, if you think long and hard, often you can find an easier way to get things done.

But today I wonder, just what are we sacrificing by making things so dang easy all the time?

How do you feel after you've done something easy?  Does it make a lasting impression?

Now - think about how you feel after accomplishing difficult tasks?  What are the things we remember most?  The easy things or the really difficult ones?

Today begins Lent.  To me, it is a time to refocus on Christ and gift of His sacrifice.  Some give up things that distract them from Christ.  Some add in things that will draw them closer to Him.  Some just ignore it of course……..   easy.  Easy to ignore it.  Easy to give up something that was not significant or add in something that you needed to do anyway.  I would venture to say most make it easy.  But my challenge this year is to actually embrace the difficult.  I have decided on something difficult to omit from my life but I'm also adding in something that will be hard to make time for.  I need this time to be meaningful.  I don't want it to be easy.  The easy things fade away.  I want to remember this year as a time that I began to see value in those things that are difficult.

So what are we to do when we are tempted to go back to the easy?

What do we do when we want to give up?

What do we do when we don't know which direction is best?

What do we do when our self will seems to outweigh God's will?

We pray.  And we wait.  And we listen…….  Not easy things to do.  But God WILL answer.  Is He easy to seek, easy to wait for or easy to hear?  No way.  God is not easy.  He may not even give you an easy answer.  But He will give you the BEST answer.  God wants His best for us.  When we look at what we quantify as "best" in our lives, they were most likely things that did not come easy.  To earn "best" status, someone had to work for it.  First place comes after years of hard work and practice.  The same is true spiritually.

Someone very important to me once asked, "What, of value, ever comes easy?" - and what he may not know is that was actually an answer from God.  Nothing, of value, comes easy.  A life worth living can't be easy because easy things have very little value in our lives.  Our effort, our struggles, our mistakes, our heartaches, our sacrifices - those are what makes life valuable; those are what make a difference and mold us into God's best.