There is something strange about the way human beings think about challenges in life. We know life is hard. We have experienced difficult relationships, financial pressure, health problems, disappointing careers, aging parents, challenging children, and circumstances that didn’t work out the way we hoped.

And yet, somewhere in the back of our minds, we keep thinking: eventually life is going to get easier. As a student we think, “I just need to make it through this semester.” When we are parents we think, “I just need to make it through this stage.” And, in all of life we think, “I just need to make it to the weekend or my next vacation.”

But have you noticed that we never seem to arrive? There is always something else that is going to create challenges and yet we have this quirky part of our personality that keeps expecting life to be easy.

LIFE WASN’T SUPPOSED TO BE THIS HARD

The opening chapters of Genesis give us an interesting picture of life. Genesis 1–2 describes a world created by God where everything is perfect. There is work, but work isn’t frustrating. Somehow relationships and responsibilities are easy and seamlessly flow from one thought to the next. 

Adam is placed in the garden to work and care for it. But then Genesis 3 happens. In that moment, humanity decides we want God’s creation without God’s authority, and sin fractures everything God created to be good.

God tells Adam: “Cursed is the ground because of you; in toil you will eat of it all the days of your life.” And then: “Both thorns and thistles it shall grow for you.” Something has changed. Adam will still work. But now his work will fight back.

He will plant something he wants and something he doesn’t want will grow alongside it. Have you noticed we don’t have to fertilize weeds? They just grow! They thrive! Nobody walks into the backyard and says, “Come look at all my crabgrass!” That’s still our experience today with every part of life!

THERE WILL ALWAYS BE THORNS

There are going to be seasons we work really hard on our marriage and conflict still shows up. Raising children can be a blast, but there’s no secret method. It’s going to be hard! Eating healthy and working out is always good for our bodies, but it can all be wiped out in a few weeks the moment we stop. It’s because thorns and thistles in life are going to show up!

We know this is a part of life, and yet we keep believing we’re one change away from finally escaping them. There is this sneaky thought in our head that the next job or next relationship is going to make it all better.

There’s nothing wrong with improving our circumstances in life. Sometimes we really do need to make changes. But eventually the new circumstances develop their own thorns, and that’s the tension in life.

WE KEEP TRYING TO FIND EDEN

Think about how much of life is organized around the pursuit of comfort. We genuinely believe if we made more money life would be easier. The allure of the next phase of technology is always giving us this illusion that our life could be easier.

How many mattress commercials have we seen where they prey upon our fatigue, exhaustion, and restlessness of our soul, and then say, “You need the next great mattress that will fix everything?”

Again, none of those things are necessarily bad. The problem is what we expect from them. We keep thinking: maybe this will finally give me rest. And sometimes it does. For a while that vacation can be just what we needed. The new house will give us the space we have been wanting for our family. But, then something happens! Another thorn pops up that ruins it all and it feels like we have to start all over.

AND THEN JESUS SHOWS UP

Isn’t it interesting that Jesus enters a world full of exhausted people and says, “Come to Me, all who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.” It’s almost as though Jesus is speaking directly into this ancient longing humanity has carried since Genesis 3.

We say, “I’m tired.” Jesus says, “Come to Me.” We say, “I just need life to settle down.” Jesus says, “Come to Me.” We say, “I just want some rest.” Jesus says, “Come to Me…and I will give you rest. Notice what Jesus doesn’t say. He doesn’t say, “Come to Me and I’ll make your life easy, remove difficulty, never get sick, and remove all those thorns from our life.” Jesus offers rest without promising ease, which is an important distinction. The rest Jesus offers isn’t the absence of difficult circumstances. It’s life with Him in the middle of those circumstances.

LIFE IS STILL GOING TO BE HARD

Following Jesus doesn’t take us out of Genesis 3. There are still thorns and thistles with Jesus. There are still nights when we wake up at 3 a.m. and suddenly our brain decides this is the perfect time to solve every problem in our life.

But the gospel changes how we walk through those moments. In Christ, we don’t have to know how everything is going to turn out and know the answer to fix every person. Sometimes we are going to cry out in bold prayers and sometimes it will feel like nothing is changing.

But, because we are with Jesus we can walk through those circumstances and we can wait on Him and His will to be accomplished in our life, because we’re with Jesus. The follower of Jesus is only going to find so much rest in the comforts that this world has to offer. Our ultimate rest comes through faith in Jesus as we rest in Him. 

MAYBE COMFORT ISN’T WHAT WE’RE REALLY LOOKING FOR

So why do we keep thinking life should eventually get easier? Maybe because we were made for something this world, in its present condition, cannot give us. We were made for life with God without thorns.

Genesis tells us why the thorns came. And Jesus shows up offering the thing we’ve been trying to manufacture ever since. One day, Jesus will remove the thorns completely. The curse will be gone and all things will be made new.

But until then, maybe we can stop being surprised that life is difficult? Maybe we can stop believing we’re one circumstance away from finally arriving at comfort. And maybe the next time life gets difficult, instead of immediately asking, “How do I make this go away?” We can also ask, “How do I walk through this with Jesus and wait on Him?”