The Easy Way Out

I had to take the car I’ve been borrowing since my poor Taurus has bit the dust to the glass place for a new windshield and back window from the hail damage. I decided that since it was nice enough out that Ethan and I would just walk home. As we walked, we passed a few houses for sale. Cute houses, probably the same as the church house we lived in last year while Josh was still on staff, but at the same time old-fashioned, simple houses. As I looked at the architecture and admired it and daydreamed about living there I found myself thinking, “why don’t we just buy a house like this and just live here – it’d be much easier than dealing with what we’re dealing with.”

How often do we do this. Not just think this or say it but actually do it – you know, take the “easy way” out? Sure, living in the U.S., working the jobs we have (or a teaching position for me Lord willing) would definitely be much easier than having to figure out finances, make plans for paying off student loans, moving to the middle of the America’s away from family and friends. But would the easy way out really be worth it? Maybe in the short term, maybe in the here and now, during our life on earth, but when the day comes and the Lord calls us home, the “easy way out” would never come close to the things God is truly waiting for us to experience by following Him and His plan.

This thought made me think of a movie Josh and I watched recently called “What If…” It is a Christian movie, made by the same people who made the “Left Behind” Series, so yes, it was a bit cheesy. Anyways, the storyline is a man leaves for a big city job hoping to make money for his future family – at the time he’s dating someone from back home. He gets lost in the fast paced city life and leaves behind his beliefs and hometown girlfriend. 15 years later, God intervenes – or as Priscilla Shirer calls them, Divine Interventions – sends him back home on a “what if” trip where he’s married to that hometown girlfriend and has two daughters and is a preacher. He relearns and remembers what our life as Christians should truly be about – glorifying God and serving Him. My point with this movie was that when he left 15 years prior for the big city and left behind all he had believed in he ended up taking the “easy road” and gaining “power, fame, and fortune” within this world – BUT if he had just listened to God and to his hometown girlfriend he would’ve had all of that stored up in heaven waiting for him AND not losing 15 years with her.

What I’m trying to say is that the “easy way out” really, in the end, isn’t the easy way. Not when it comes to answering to God for our lives and being held accountable for our actions. Sure, the Christian life isn’t easy, but it’s not meant to be. How could we ever lean and trust in God if it was?

I’ve tried the “easy way” in my past and every time I always ended up right back at the feet of Jesus asking for forgiveness. I’m not willing to give in to the “easy way” – no matter how appealing it may seem, when I know that the rewards from God – whether they are seen in this life or the next – will be a million times sweeter than anything I could ever imagine while living the “easy way”.

I pray that if you’ve been walking down the “easy road” that maybe this post will get you thinking about things. I pray that if you are there, that you will turn to God’s open arms and rest in His blessings for once instead of the world’s.

Please continue to pray for us and strength through this process. It is a lot harder than I think we truly let on.

In Christ,

Colleen