Luke 14- Personal Difficulty

"If anyone comes to me and does not hate his father and mother, his wife and children, his brothers and sisters - yes, even his own life - he cannot be my disciple. Anyone who does not carry his cross and follow me cannot be my disciple." - Jesus

"The Christian faith has not been tried and found wanting; it has been found difficult and left untried." - G. K. Chesterton

"It's never easy." - Will Williams (You probably don't know him, he taught graphic arts at good ol' LLHS.)

So, what about this:

"Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light." - Jesus (Again) (This time from Matthew 11:28-30)

So, how do things go from difficult to easy? Where is that transition? When we carry our own burdens: our family and friends and even our selves, life is hard. But, we get used to this hardship and when we are faced with putting it down it becomes even harder. How can I possibly stop worrying about my parents? I've always taken care of my wife and kids!?! If I don't look out for number 1, who will? Putting down these burdens is hard. We want control and the power that comes with it. It is hard to get, hard to keep and hardest to put down.

This is where the light and easy comes in. When we finally put these things down and give them to Jesus things become easy... until we are tempted to take them up again and need to put them down again. It is a daily cycle that we all wrestle with: pick it up, put it down, pick it up, put it down, pick it up, put it down. In this spiritual weight-lifting, we get stronger the longer the weight lies on the floor.