It Is Never About Being Easy

The commandment of Jesus to love is so self-evident it should be readily accepted by almost everybody. And yet today, His followers are being persecuted and executed in many parts of the world like never before. And many of those of profess to follow Him are hardly the loving and giving people Christ wants His followers to be. G.K. Chesterton once wrote, “Christianity has not been tried and found wanting; it has been found difficult and not tried.”

Often, it is difficult to get out of one’s self to love and serve others. It is a lot easier just to look out for one’s self only.

Often, it is difficult to forgive those who have hurt us and even more so to turn the other cheek. It is a lot easier and sweeter to plot revenge and get even – in a distorted sense of justice.

Often, it is difficult to be humble and given to anger. It is a lot easier to let raw passion and hatred to rule our actions.

One of the things that life has taught me is that nothing good or of value has ever come easy. If it is worth having or worth doing, it is by the sweat of our brows that we get and attain it. The ultimate demonstration of this truth is the fact that there can be no resurrection without the crucifixion.

Let all the earth cry out to God with joy.
~ Psalm 100

Jesus said to his disciples:
“If the world hates you, realize that it hated me first.
If you belonged to the world, the world would love its own;
but because you do not belong to the world,
and I have chosen you out of the world,
the world hates you.
Remember the word I spoke to you,
‘No slave is greater than his master.’
If they persecuted me, they will also persecute you.
If they kept my word, they will also keep yours.
And they will do all these things to you on account of my name,
because they do not know the one who sent me.”
John 15:18-21