Not Quite an Easy Button

I pulled out of the garage today and closed the door with the garage door opener like I do every morning. While I drove to take the kids to school, I obeyed all the traffic lights when they turned green and red (maybe fudged a little on the yellows).

A van pulled into the school parking lot next to me and the doors opened as three girls jumped out with hands full and smiling faces. I stayed at school after dropping the kids off so I could watch Taylyn as her class led chapel for the morning. As I waited, I watched the scrolling announcements on the flat screen TV and diddled around on my iPod Touch. I wondered what the weather was like in Austin, TX, what my schedule looked like for the day, if anyone had sent me any emails or Facebook comments and conveniently just touched my screen to get my answers.

I proceeded to go to the grocery store and walked to the doors without even giving a second thought to reaching my cold hands out of my pockets to open the doors as I have experienced the chivalry of the automatic doors countless times before. Once I had my cart ready, I put my groceries on the black food treadmill that carried them from the end of the counter to the cashier as she waited nonchalantly to push the items over the laser that would add up the total for her.

Our society is inundated with automation and it's a trend that is only getting worse. Dishwashers do the dirty work. Alarm clocks tell us when to rise and shine. GPS tells us when to turn and how to get there. Calculators give counting on our fingers anonymity. Technology, while I am an enormous fan of the progression it enables, allows and practically promotes laziness as operate within our society under the guise of "convenience" with relatively little effort or discomfort.

Our society is FULL of easy ways of living life. There's an app for that, there's a button for this, there's a quick way to do just about anything we want to do. Is it any wonder we have transfered this "now" culture into our spiritual and emotional lives that leave us stunted and confused and ultimately empty and hurting?

A family member passes and the world expects us to "get over it, move on" in a few short days or weeks. Heaven forbid it take months or even years to come to terms with the pain and reality of the loss. We disallow people, especially Christians, to deal with grief because certainly they should have the strength and fortitude to know that it was all part of God's plan.

Jobs are lost, marriages are broken, relationships are estranged and we start to wonder with all kinds of uncertainty "What is wrong with me?" while forgetting that THIS is that thing called L-I-F-E. Life takes an incredible amount of effort. We all face things that are uncomfortable and so hard that we doubt if we will even be able to make it through. We doubt if anyone understands. We smile because we fear the judgment of others knowing our true weakness. We dance around issues that need to be dealt with because we lack the stamina to go the distance.

And yet the easiest and most powerful way to deal with these obstacles is to hit our knees and humbly ask God for strength. Could it really be as simple as that? Even easier, we don't even have to open our mouths, we can just think with our minds and approach the throne of grace. Does it make life easier? Not sure I can answer that question. I'm not sure when the time came when we were told it WOULD be easy. What makes me think I deserve an easy life just because I am a Christian? Perhaps true peace comes in knowing it won't be easy.

Job was a blameless and righteous man and everything...EVERYTHING....was taken from his life. And though he had moments of desperation and wanted to die in his grief, he maintained the integrity of knowing that we need to accept both good AND trouble. (Job 2:10). Was he discouraged? You betcha! Not just discouraged, but in despair!

"Therefore, I will not keep silent; I will speak out in the anguish of my spirit, I will complain in the bitterness of my soul. Am I the sea or the monster of the deep, that You put me under Your guard? When I think by bed will comfort me and my couch will ease my complaint, even then you frighten me with dreams and terrify me with visions, so that I prefer strangling and death, rather than this body of mine. I despise my life; I would not live forever. Let me alone, my days have no meaning." (Job 7:11-16)

Essentially, he is saying "ENOUGH, GOD! I'VE HAD IT!!!!" Haven't we all been there at some point? Don't we all reach that point when life has just become TOO hard? We wonder why things happen and when it's going to end. And unfortunately,there's no quick fix. There's no automatic button to push to make the hard times go away. There's not even clear signs of when it will end. There's not an easy way around it.

As far as I can tell, there is only one thing in life that should be and is promised to be easy: the decision God wants us to make to "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." Matthew 11:28-30