Easy or Hard? ...

Wednesday, Sept 19, 2012. Is it easy to be fully standing on two feet? Is it easy to NOT be superficial? Is it easy to live a life full of purpose, spicy and fascinating? Or is it hard work? Do you need to put effort in, to gain full life?

A tricky thing …

It might not be that easy to answer the question. You need to look a little closer. Sometimes things are easy when you have them, when you know how it works. It is easy to know where something is, after you found it. When you have not yet found it, it might look quite hopeless and difficult!

There are also different talents. What is very easy for one, might be extremely difficult for another. Or when you do not have any exercise, for example, to prepare some talk in front of a group of 20 people, it can take you days or even weeks to prepare it. When you have a lot of exercise, you might even do it without much preparation … and it can be very exciting and good!

In science I have learned that things can be very easy when you know them well. But when you start, often it is extremely difficult to see through. Usually, things are not prepared in a way to easily understand them … but when you went through the details, you know the right steps which make it all easy. There are not that many people with the talent to work out these steps and show them to other people in an accessible way!

Biblical wisdom needs time and effort …

With faith things are also quite mixed. Faith itself is easy, when you found it. Believe in Jesus. Everyone can do that - you do not need particular intelligence or wealth or talent. Everyone is invited to the almighty eternal Lord! The door is wide open, step in and be saved. Easy and simple. Just say yes to Jesus.

But to grow in wisdom, seems to be a more difficult process. I can tell, because I have now tried to go this way for more than 20 years … and I still feel at the very beginning. It is a highly fascinating way, you learn a lot all the time. God is fantastic, gorgeous, unbelievable, wonderful, breathtaking … and big! Really big! To get to know him takes a lifetime and more. He can teach you so much, you need the will to go his way, again and again, and effort to learn, to do, to practice, to pray …

So I cannot really say “its easy” or “its hard”. It is both easy and hard. It is simple, and it needs effort and practice and training. And when you think more about it: is good. It is natural. And it makes sense. God wants to save us, and we just need to accept it. But he wants to transform us by saving us, and he wants us to be there with our full personality, our will, our heart … and that takes time, it needs decisions and it needs practice. (Roland Potthast) ... more texts