As humans, we are more inclined to take the easy way out, yes, but we are also often known to go for a challenge if we can see a reward. I’m like 99% sure it’s a psychological principle. We are wired to persevere regardless of how painful it is if there’s a reward worth receiving at the end of it. I know this is true because I see it every single day with my students. Reading and writing are not their preferred method of entertainment. As such, they are inclined to try to find the easiest (and often most ineffective) way to get through it. Now, if they’re making a Tik Tok, you best believe they are going to invest the time and energy to develop the idea, execute it, edit the video, and add effects. I once had a student tell me that it took them 2+ hours to create it when it was all said and done. 2 hours. For a 30 second video. For what? Likes. Now to me, likes are cool but not 2+ hours cool. I’d rather take that time to read a book, but our rewards are different and thus our motivations are too. Nonetheless, it's still a lot of effort for both of us even though we are doing things we like to do.

The thing is, even though we are wired to do hard things, it doesn’t make them easier, it just makes them possible. Christianese translation: hard things are still hard.

Being a Christian is kind of like this. Scratch that. Being a Christian is often like this; being a Christian is almost always hard. I’m not sure why a lot of us walk around acting like it’s not because to me, it’s the hardest thing I’ve ever done. It’s hard to live for God when the rest of the world isn’t. It’s hard to maintain standards when many people around us do not respect them, much less uphold them. It’s hard to maintain purity in a world that is so dead set against obliterating it. Christianity is just hard. I think many of us, myself included, had this expectation that living for God was something that was supposed to make our live better. The problem is, we grossly misinterpreted the meaning of “better.” Either that or our version is vastly different from God’s.

I think about Job. Job was a faithful man. He did everything right and was considered, "blameless," which in that time was pretty legit since Jesus hadn’t stepped onto the scene to make us all new and whatnot. But you know what, his faithfulness did not make him immune to suffering. In fact, I would venture to say that he got the worst out of it compared to people who were far less faithful to God. To me, that seems imbalanced and unfair. To me, that doesn’t make a bit of sense. But yet, I remember that the only perfect man to ever live didn’t have a fair run of it either.

And as if that initial shock of loss or disappointment for Job wasn’t bad enough, the most agonizing part, I would imagine, would be the bit in the middle. In the middle, he still had to remain true and choose not to curse God and give up although it would have probably made things easier. Friends, the hard part often isn’t the loss, it’s dealing with the consequences of that loss in the battle between our flesh and our spirit. The hard part is not giving up on living God’s way even when it seems like that might alleviate the suffering. The hard part is still choosing to praise God even when it looks and feels like he’s taken everything from you. Anyone can do something hard for a short period of time. It’s when that time period becomes significantly longer that many of us quit. But unfortunately, it’s only when we don’t give up that we see the reward. With the exception of maybe salvation, Christianity doesn’t really give participation trophies.

You see, living for God does make your life better, but it’s a long game; often we don’t see the payoff right away or even in our lifetime. That’s not glamorous and it doesn’t really sell Christianity all that well; it’s actually somewhat disheartening if I’m being honest. But the reason I think I feel that way is because so many things in this world are quick and easy, and what makes it tricky is that it’s not universal. What may be quick and easy for one, is slow and grueling for the next. And suffering, like reading and writing for my students, is not our “preferred method of entertainment,” so we want that quick and easy fix. God never promised easy. God never even promised fair. But here’s what he did promise: hope, peace, grace, his presence, and abundant life. So I know that if I am missing those things, I’ve either got to refocus, remain patient, or both. After all, God did restore Job’s fortune to more than what he had before, and the story ends in chapter 42:17 when it says, “Then he died, an old man who had lived a long, full life.” Let’s hold out for that long, full life. A life that can only be found when we choose to continue to do hard things.