Better Than Easy
In our world of advanced technology, it seems everything is getting easier.
Need groceries for the week? Click a button and they are delivered to your front door a couple hours later. Easy!
Time to do that work or school research? The vast Internet (and endless convenient ways to use it) awaits. Easy!
Don’t know how to change a flat tire, braid your daughter’s hair, or pronounce the name of the CEO in your next meeting? Just ask your digital assistant and, abracadabra, you’re an expert. Easy!
So many things are rapidly becoming so much easier, and all of the artificial intelligence experts tell us we haven’t seen anything yet. We are told that nearly every human task is in the process of being significantly disrupted and made—you guessed it—easy.
What a time to be alive! With everything getting easier, you might assume life is getting better, and your future life will be even more so. Not so fast! Depression rates have been steadily rising in the United States, and in many other places around the word, for at least a decade. Mental wellbeing indicators suggest more anxiety and less happiness. To put it simply, even though so much in our world is getting easier, our human bodies are reacting as though they are under greater and greater stress.
To be clear, this correlation does not automatically mean causation. There are certainly a great number of factors contributing to this troubling rise in depression and unhappiness. But it is worth taking a moment to consider what God’s Word has to say about the benefits and drawbacks of an easy life:
- Hard work is better than a life of ease – This principle is sprinkled all throughout scripture, but Proverbs 13:4 is particularly relevant: “A sluggard’s appetite is never filled, but the desires of the diligent are fully satisfied."
- Feeding the wrong desires doesn’t satisfy – You and I are certainly capable of intaking and consuming more. But Proverbs 30:15-16 is clear that some desires cannot be satiated with more: “There are three things that are never satisfied, four that never say, ‘Enough!’: the grave, the barren womb, land, which is never satisfied with water, and fire, which never says, ‘Enough!’” Could it be that the things you are more easily acquiring are actually ensnaring you rather than satisfying you?
- The goals worth fulfilling are found on the other side of struggle – It is true for everything from elementary math, to monumental scientific breakthroughs, to record setting athletic achievements: When we are rescued prematurely from struggle, it short circuits both our growth and the potential value of the endeavor. This is Romans 5:3-5: “[B]ut we also glory in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope. And hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us.”
My friend, easy is so very attractive! Two-hour delivery, knowledge without grappling, and instant gratification are so very appealing—seductive even! We want easy!
But there is something far better than easy. You were created and infused with the very likeness of God not to simply lead a life of ease but in fact to join the Creator in His work (1 Cor. 3:9)! You were designed to grapple with the world around you as a means of knowing its Source more deeply and intimately. You were meant to sit in His presence and absorb His spirit more than you were simply to have access to information about Him.
You were designed for the struggle. Not because God doesn’t want you to thrive, but in fact because that struggle ushers you into His presence, instills in you His likeness, and grows in you the perseverance, character, and hope that causes you to transcend all that is around you.
The world around you is getting easier in many ways. But your path is better than easy. The sufferings you encounter as you serve with Christ are not to be avoided. It is, in fact, through them that you will attain your crown of glory!
“Blessed is the one who perseveres under trial because, having stood the test, that person will receive the crown of life that the Lord has promised to those who love him” (Jam. 1:12).
“Do not be afraid of what you are about to suffer... Be faithful, even to the point of death, and I will give you life as your victor's crown” (Rev. 2:10).