Hard Things

There is an emphasis in our culture on making things easy. Banks, car companies, technology developers, grocery stores, restaurants, and many other businesses are actively seeking to make life easier for us. (Or so their advertising would have us believe.)

Don’t get me wrong, I am as big a fan of modern conveniences as the next person, and am very thankful for things like heating, refrigeration, computers, and cell phones.

It is wonderful not to live in “the olden days” when simply cooking meals took hours of back breaking toil –not to mention the added work of laundry and house cleaning.

Yes, modern conveniences have indeed made life easier for us.

But with all this ease in our lives, I’ve noticed that we tend to get a bit spoiled. We begin to think ourselves unfairly treated when anything hard or unpleasant comes into our lives. But what does the Bible say about hard things?

In 2 Timothy, God inspired Paul to write to the following:

“Thou therefore endure hardness, as a good soldier of Jesus Christ.” (2:3)

Soldiers are trained to do hard things. They are expected to follow through with their orders without complaint or fuss, no matter how difficult or terrifying those orders may be.

For those of us who have been trained by our culture to expect life to be easy, enduring hardships with the fortitude of a soldier is almost unthinkable. It is, however, what God asks of us.

But how? How do we train ourselves to faithfully endure instead of complain and whine? The next verse gives us a clue:

“No man that warreth entangleth himself with the affairs of this life; that he may please him who hath chosen him to be a soldier.” (2:4)

To endure hardships like a soldier, we must have a soldier’s focus. A soldier who is consumed with thoughts of home and comforts lost will not be focused on the task at hand. But a good soldier will have a single-minded focus on fulfilling his orders. As Colossians 3:2 says, we are to

“Set your affection on things which are above, not on things on the earth.”

We live in this world, with its conveniences and ease, but our focus is to be on eternity.

As good, eternity-minded “soldiers” of Christ, we must keep focused on our mission. That mission, of course, is to share the gospel (Mark 16:15) and to live our lives in such a way that shines the light of Christ before those around us. (Matthew 5:16)

I think you would agree that the salvation of souls from the never-ending torment of hell is far more important than any comfort or ease we might enjoy.

So the question is, are we living like it? Are we focused on our own comfort, and on making things easy, or are we focused on sharing Christ?