Tag Archives: discouraged

Why Do We Keep Thinking Life Should Be Easier?

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?”

The Danger of Uncertainty

If you’ve ever driven around the Domain in Austin, you know how quickly things can change. One week there’s a new apartment complex going up. The next week another restaurant closes. Tech companies are hiring, then laying off. Traffic patterns change, so that sometimes morning traffic is at 7:30am and sometimes 9:30am.  What?

Last Sunday, I stood in front of our church family, a church by the Domain in Austin, and realized we were living through one of those seasons.  We are in the midst of a ton of questions. Where are we going to meet? How is this all going to work financially? New positions on staff are need and just like in any church, we need men and women who are taking ownership beyond attending on Sunday morning.

In addition, how do we stay focused on our vision as a church family in the midst of uncertainty. The temptation to give into apathy and indifference is off the charts. After all, what does it matter? This is the voice that echoes through our church family right now. You can feel it on a Sunday morning. It’s palpable! As the elders of our church family, we know we don’t have all the answers. The people in our church family know we don’t have all the answers. And, like most people, our first instinct in the midst of uncertainty is to find certainty!

  • “If I just knew what was going to happen…”
  • “If I could just get an answer…”
  • “If I knew how this relationship would turn out…”
  • “If I knew whether this job was going to work…”

Then I’d finally have peace, confidence, clarity and everything would be great! But that’s not what Scripture teaches. In Genesis 3, Adam and Eve didn’t lack information. They had everything they needed. They knew God. They walked with Him in the cool of the garden as friends. Can you imagine?

But something changed in their story. It wasn’t the information they possessed about God and one another. It was the uncertainty that entered the conversation when the serpent asked one simple question: “Has God really said…?” That question wasn’t about gathering information. It’s not like the serpent was genuinely wondering, “What has God said?” He knows! Instead the serpent was introducing uncertainty into the conversation.

Uncertainty Shapes Us

Here’s what struck me while studying Genesis 3. The greatest danger wasn’t that Adam and Eve had unanswered questions. The greatest danger was that uncertainty began shaping their relationship with God. That’s still true today. When uncertainty goes unchecked, we begin asking different questions.

  • “Can I really trust God?”
  • “Is He holding out on me?”
  • “Does He actually know what’s best?”
  • “Is He paying attention?”

The circumstances haven’t changed yet, but our hearts have started to look for something else in life to find stability. This is where the spiritual fight for our faith in Jesus goes live! The serpent never showed up with overwhelming power. He showed up with words and suggestions about truth.

He didn’t immediately tell Eve to rebel against God. Instead, he simply nudged her toward uncertainty. That’s how deception usually works. Rarely does it ask us to abandon everything overnight. Instead, it slowly erodes trust.

  • One conversation.
  • One thought.
  • One assumption.
  • One compromise at a time.

Responding to Uncertainty

One of the fascinating details in Genesis 3 is that Eve begins subtly changing what God actually said. God began with generosity in Genesis 2, “You may freely eat from every tree…” By the time Eve repeats God’s command, the emphasis on God’s generosity has disappeared. She even adds restrictions God never gave. That’s what uncertainty often does. It magnifies what we’ve lost while minimizing what we’ve been given. Uncertainty creates fear that becomes louder than gratitude.

In a city like Austin, it can give us this illusion of certainty. Tech companies keep moving into the city. Exotic cars keep appearing. We are surrounded by wealth and education in the capitol of Texas! It feels pretty certain! But it just takes a moment and any of those “certain” areas of life can change in a second. And, deep down, we know those areas of life are unstable and unreliable. Therefore, the goal isn’t to eliminate uncertainty in life. That’s impossible! The better question is, “Who am I becoming while I walk through uncertainty?”

This is critical because fear produces one kind of person. It’s the kind of person that gets wrapped up with insecurity. Fear stirs up passivity. Fear causes us to spend energy on something that might never happen. But, when we are in a place of trust it produces a different kind of a person. When we are layered in trust we will move toward people. We are clear in our thinking. One is controlled by outcomes, the other has a foundation.

The Gospel Speaks Into Our Uncertainty

Genesis 3 doesn’t end with Adam and Eve hiding forever. God comes looking for them. Read that last sentence again, “God comes looking for them.” That’s the gospel! Long before Adam and Eve searched for Him, He searched for them. Read the chapter for yourself and see. It’s amazing!

That story ultimately points to Jesus. Where Adam and Eve hid, Jesus stepped forward. Where they tried to cover their own shame, Jesus covered ours through His death and resurrection. The gospel isn’t simply that God gives us answers. The gospel is that God gives us Himself. That changes everything. Because certainty has never been found in perfect circumstances. It’s found in the unchanging character of God.

The future will still be unclear. Our economy will still fluctuate. Relationships will disappoint if we give them enough time. But the invitation of Jesus remains the same as He calls us to know Him, trust Him, follow Him, and invite others to do the same. Because, sometimes faith isn’t knowing exactly where you’re going, sometimes faith is knowing Who you’re walking with on the journey.