Difficulties break some people… but make others.
The purpose of everything modern-day society is doing, is to make life as easy and as comfortable as possible. We are creating a world filled with cotton ball people. The promotion of such ludicrousness is leading to a self-destructive society. A society that has no idea how to deal with any difficulty, because we are told to avoid anything that takes us out of our comfort zone – anything that requires effort.
And slowly but surely, this worldly view is creeping into the lives of Christians. We are happy to stick to our morals and values when life is easy and things are going well. However, the true test of our faith comes to the fore when we stand face to face with seemingly impossible situations. Situations like Daniel faced, when he was told to follow decrees that would take him out of the comforts of the palace and into eminent death of the lion’s den, if he refused. A place where he either had to choose comfort, or stand up for his faith.
We simply tend to choose comfort over anything else because it’s what we’ve been conditioned to do. We want our blessings in our pockets. We want our specialty coffees in the foyers of our magnificent church buildings. We want a rock star preacher to tell us the things we want to hear. Because that’s what we’ve been conditioned to run after. How many of us are willing, or even committed, to follow Jesus based on His terms, not the world’s?
Jesus’s terms are not wrapped up in cotton wool. His terms are not about comfort and easy living. In fact, He tells us that if we want to truly follow Him, our perspective will have to change. Society’s way of doing things has no place in the life of a committed Christ follower. Carrying a cross means that we will need to be mocked and ridiculed. It means that we will struggle to stand up straight at times. It means that we must be willing to even die for our faith. That’s what Jesus is saying when He tells us to take up our cross if we want to follow Him. There’s no way of settling into comfort, when we decide to follow Jesus.
There’s a choice to be made. Do we want our children to grow up with a life goal of being comfortable and unable to deal with any obstacles that life might throw at them. Or do we want the next generation to be strong and steadfast in their faith. We need to raise a generation of people who know what it means to follow Jesus and count it a privilege to struggle in a worldly sense, but flourish in their souls. We are called not to simply follow the crowd. We are called to follow Christ, no matter how tough it might get. Because when we do, we know that our reward is waiting for us. So let’s run the race, and finish strong!
Have an amazing day.
Mark Davidson
