AUGUST 10, 2025

 

“Life is difficult. This is a great truth, one of the greatest truths. It is a great truth because once we truly see this truth, we transcend it. Once we truly know that life is difficult-once we truly understand and accept it-then life is no longer difficult. Because once it is accepted, the fact that life is difficult no longer matters.” 
― M. Scott Peck, The Road Less Traveled: A New Psychology of Love, Traditional Values, and Spiritual Growth

PSALM 88-89

50Remember, Lord, how your servant has been mocked,

how I bear in my heart the taunts of all the nations,

51the taunts with which your enemies, Lord, have mocked,

with which they have mocked every step of your anointed one.52Praise be to the Lord forever! Amen and Amen. (89:50-52)

ROMANS 10

3Since they did not know the righteousness of God and sought to establish their own, they did not submit to God’s righteousness. 4Christ is the culmination of the law so that there may be righteousness for everyone who believes.

JOURNAL 

There is something in me that still wants life to work out exactly the way I want. When it does not, I either scramble to fix it or try to soothe myself with distractions. I find myself longing for some ultimate answer that will make me happy, successful, and at peace...a magic formula, a hidden fountain, a shortcut to paradise. Yet the more I search for ease, the more I discover it does not exist. What I truly resist is the struggle, the frustration, and the obedience to God that requires endurance. I want the outcome without the process. I want the peace without the perseverance. This is the oldest temptation in the book, sin’s invitation to bypass trust in God for my own comfort.

M. Scott Peck was right when he wrote, “Life is difficult. This is a great truth, one of the greatest truths… once we truly understand and accept it, then life is no longer difficult… because once it is accepted, the fact that life is difficult no longer matters.” Scripture affirms this in its own way. The psalmist cried, “Remember, Lord, how your servant has been mocked… the taunts with which your enemies have mocked every step of your anointed one” (Psalm 89:50-51). The Bible does not promise that the path will be smooth; it promises that God will be faithful on the rough path.

The irony is that the moment I stop resisting the reality that life is hard, I discover the strength to live it well. When I submit to God’s way instead of trying to establish my own (Romans 10:3-4), trusting Him becomes desirable rather than something I must be forced into. I am created for dependence on Him, and I am at my best when I accept that truth and live in it.

Paul learned this when he wrote, “Three times I pleaded with the Lord to take it away from me. But he said to me, ‘My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness’… For when I am weak, then I am strong” (2 Corinthians 12:7-10). That is the paradox of the Christian life; strength comes not from making life easier but from embracing the difficulty and letting God’s grace carry me through it.

The only way life gets easier is when I stop expecting it to be easy. Once I accept that the hard road is the road, the weight of resentment and disappointment begins to lift. The struggle is no longer something to escape; it becomes the very place where God shapes me, strengthens me, and reveals His sufficiency.

8Three times I pleaded with the Lord to take it away from me. 9But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” ... For when I am weak, then I am strong. 
- 2 CORINTHIANS 12:7-10