THE EASY WAY

I was thinking this morning about the easy way and the hard way. And the fact that - for me - the easy would be so much...easier. Don't worry about context here, this is a universal application.  The easy way to better health, the easy way to spiritual growth, the easy way to financial security, the easy way to (insert name of thing you wish was easier here).  Know what I mean?  Fact is, I don't think there is an easy way to anything.  No, not even salvation.  Oh, it's easy enough to pray a prayer and believe in your heart and call upon the name of the Lord, but what one typically goes through to arrive at the "easy part" isn't always easy. And the road forward?  Those of you working out your salvation with fear and trembling (Phillipians 2:12-13) can weigh in on how easy it is to be a follower of Christ.

And I was thinking about some of the people in my life that lovingly give me a hard way to go.  I'm not talking about people that I have conflict with, or people that rub me the wrong way (don't even pretend you don't know people like that in your own life), I'm talking about a small handful of people who seem to be there for the express purpose of keeping me from doing things the "easy" way. People that challenge me.  Not just people who don't agree with me (no particular shortage there for any of us I'm sure), but people who make me dig deep, who make me a student of life, who make me a disciple of Christ, who literally make me work out...you know, my salvation...with fear and trembling.  

Now the context: I am learning to discern the difference between commentary I do not agree with, commentary I have been trained not to agree with, and commentary that I don't know if I agree with or not...because it just simply soars WAY over my head.  I don't know about you, but I have found that when confronted with ideas that are taller than I am, I have two choices: ignore them and live with the implications, or do the hard work of growing, of stretching, of expanding, of finding common ground, of relating, of learning, so that next time....it might not fly right over me, and I might actually have something to add, or more importantly something that adds to me.  Sounds time consuming, right?  Sound hard, doesn't it? Counterintuitively...it's actually the easy way.  The hardest way is to withdraw from the great questions of humanity and the great conversation that beckons our participation; for in that withdrawal lie the seeds of ignorance, of injustice, of intolerance, of prejudice and of both moral and spiritual poverty.  Maybe the most applicable way we can "love each other", it to listen to each other.    

My conclusion?  The easy way is never really easy, it's just easier than the hard way, by a margin of...oh, say several thousand light-years.