Easy street.
Easy-peasy.
Take it easy.
We love easy, don’t we?
Easy like Sunday morning.
Easy as pie.
Easy does it.
Except, that easy can’t. If resistance builds strength, then no resistance builds no strength. Literally, the easier we have it, the faster we’ll quit when we face any kind of obstacle because we won’t have the necessary strength to push past it.
We all dream of the easy life, one free from struggle or hardship, but you and I don’t really want an easy life. What we want is a life that counts.
The lives that really count – that echo through generations long after they’ve been lived – are lives that have faced and overcome obstacles.
Albert Einstein didn’t speak for the first three years of his life.
Jim Carrey dropped out of school at 15 years of age to support his family, and eventually lived in a van with them.
Thomas Edison, possibly the most famous inventor of all-time, is estimated to have failed between 1,000 and 10,000 times before he invented the light bulb.
Benjamin Franklin’s parents couldn’t afford to send him to school, so he educated himself through reading.
Walt Disney was fired from his first job for lacking imagination and creativity.
Peter had this in mind when he wrote these words about trials:
These have come so that the proven genuineness of your faith—of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire—may result in praise, glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed. (1 Peter 1:7 NIV, emphasis mine)
Peter knew that the worth of our faith and lives is proven by trials. The obstacles are hard and heavy, but it’s the lifting of heavy things that increases our strength. When we view obstacles as opportunities for growth, it changes how we approach hard things.
Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance. (James 1:2-3 NIV, emphasis mine)
Who considers a trial joy? Those who know that growth is on the other side. The tested life leads to the best life because as our perseverance grows, so does the “proven genuineness of our faith.”
We can’t be overcomers without something to overcome.
We won’t grow in faith without being in situations that demand more faith.
We’ll never see miracles if we aren’t in need of miracles.
Obstacles aren’t opportunities to lay down and whine about how hard our lives are and how much we wish we had it easy.
Obstacles are opportunities to grow, and when our stories are told, they’ll make the most compelling chapters.
Photo by Oskar Malm on Unsplash
