M. Scott Peck’s famous book “The Road Less Travelled” begins with a famous truth: Life is difficult. So it is! God promises suffering to Adam and Eve as they exit the Garden of Eden. Jesus teaches, “In the world you have trouble and suffering,” (John 16:33).
Yet Christians maintain that life is good, just like the campers, hikers and Frisbee throwers tell us on their T-shirts and coffee mugs. It is good, but it’s difficult. Why then would we ever believe that the worship of God would be easy?
We know Jesus’ teaching: “If any would be my disciple, let them deny themselves, take up their cross, and follow me” (Mark 8:34). Yet we dumb the message down, we sell it cheap, we assume when Jesus said, “my yoke is easy, and my burden is light,” (Matt. 11:30), he meant the Christian life is a bed of roses! What nonsense!
If life is good, but difficult, we should expect the worship of the true, living God to be good, but difficult. It should challenge us! It should make us work!
Consider: What life-giving relationship in your life requires nothing of you? All of my relationships: with my wife, my children, my friends ó they all demand the best of me. Why would my relationship with God be any different?
Consider: What quality things in your life demand nothing of you? I remember the first time I tried Starbucks coffee back in 1985: Too strong! It cost 85 cents! But, clearly, I, and a great many others, developed a taste for it. I wrestled in high school because our team let it be known that wrestling was the hardest thing I’d ever do. I joined the Marines in 1984 largely because they said boldly: Maybe you can become one of us. They didn’t pander to me, they challenged me; and my life has never been the same!
Churches today are losing members because we make it so easy, and ask almost nothing of thoughtful people seeking answers. Religions like Buddhism and Islam are on the march in America because they make strenuous demands of their followers. Can you imagine American Christians ever bowing to the ground in prayer five times a day? Or meditating in prayer for hours? That kind of spiritual discipline is foreign to us!
I want my church to challenge me ó intellectually, spiritually, and physically! I want worship to be difficult! Because life has taught me ó the truly good things in life are difficult. Love, beauty, joy: These are all products of blood, sweat and tears. But they’re worth it. I want my time in church to be worth it, too. Give me a demanding church with difficult liturgy.
Leave the casual and easy-come, easy-go faith to others. I want to grow in faith, hope and love. None of that comes easy, so don’t try to tell me it does. Tell me the truth: Life is good, but difficult. Following Jesus is that way, too.
The Rev. Gregory Yeager is pastor of St. Mark’s Lutheran Church, China Grove.