True? Everything We Do Is Hard

In high school, and long before any of us knew about S.A.T. scores, we were introduced to another alphabet soup test that was probably a predecessor. The only thing I remember about the results was related to math. That was a subject I didn’t care about. Why? I could see no use in my personality and future for being good at it. I’ve since learned how important math is to just about everything I do, but back then, you could not tell this knucklehead anything.

In some ways, I was headstrong, and in other ways, I was pliable.

Inside of my Geometry book, you’d find a novel. The teacher knew, cared, but could not force me to focus on the subject. I was happy to slip out of that class with a “C.” Algebra I had a great teacher, but I still struggled with catching on. Give me a “B.” Algebra II? He loved to tell truck driving stories, and we loved to hear them. He often talked about the Grapevine in California, and we just came down it last week. That’s how much I learned from him! I think he pitied many of us, and we earned at least a “C” for just showing up.

Anyway. My results told me to stay out of math fields of employment and future. So, I ignored the advice and gravitated to computers. Tell me “no,” and I will show you I can.

Why Are We Like This?

Why are we like this in so much of life? Tell me no, I’ll prove you wrong. Perhaps this is a teaching method to challenge our intellect. Or, it could be a fair warning. We should not even attempt to tackle some things, but we try to do it anyhow.

Attempting to learn Spanish in Junior and High School was hard. That language did not come easy to me. To this day, I can read it much better than I can speak it, even though I’m good at rolling my “R’s.” Fifty years later, I still remember being unsuccessful with this subject. Yet, languages are complex, and they are not. I’ve written programs in over 37 computer languages!

An image popped across my social feeds last week, and immediately I flagged and saved it to peruse later.

Essentially, everything we do has a component to it that is “hard.” Choose your “hard.”

Not everything is hard as you count hardness. For me, marriage, loving kids, pastoring a church, preparing a lesson, teaching college, well, those are things I enjoy, and they come somewhat naturally. Hence, they are not hard. Wait! To be the best at these things often requires hard work to keep improving. I have examples that show me how to have a good marriage, love kids, pastor a church, prepare a lesson, teach at college, and so much more.

To be good at things I enjoy,
I stretch myself to continue to be better.
To deal with those things I’m not good at,
nor interested in, or even dislike,
I shrug my shoulders and say,
That’s too hard.

As I share with you, I feel the weight of these words. Life is hard. Choose your hard.

Think It Through

Pick up your bible. It’s weighty. Sixty-six books by over 30 writers covering thousands of years of history. It’s daunting and somewhat scary because we do not connect within everyday life because of places and times. The names and places seem strange, foreign, and unpronounceable. But God orchestrated the book for purpose. It is not limited to a small section of real estate in the middle east, on a continent far away. The purpose of the Bible is to let God speak to us in life. Everyday. Everywhere. All the time.

In fact, it opens with a foundation of God.

In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.
Genesis 1:1 KJV

Many cannot get past these words because life is full of where we came from via a universe creation and expansion via a “big bang.” Hence, at least in their view, the remainder of the book cannot be valuable because they don’t believe in a “Creator” that we learned about in our early years.

It’s Hard to keep reading the Bible because we cannot make sense of all the storylines and take much of it out of context and apply it to life. Often incorrectly. I found a bible in a used book sale, and it was called a Chronological Bible. “Chronos” deals with time. Logical, well, that’s what I am. So this book spoke to me. I loaned it and never got it back, but these Bibles are everywhere!

In fact, if my church is reading, you already have a hint to the Christmas present I have for you next Sunday.

So. The Bible is hard. Choose Your Hard.

Wrap It Up

This is a deep thought, but I hope I’ve given you something to think about. You get to choose how you respond to everything around you. Even those things which seem “easy” are actually hard. Their results may not be what you want in the future as you take the path of least resistance. Your “hard” might be a generation in the future. It could be that you will find the “hard” things to handle then might have been better when you were younger.

It’s up to you. Choose your hard. Do it while you are more capable of handling it now, or you are pushing down the road to handle it later.

What we tolerate gets accepted.
What we accept we eventually cultivate.
That which we cultivate we celebrate.