Words to Grow On

June 16 2008

“It’s Not Always That Easy”

by

Christina Kapp

I have a friend who, over the course of the past year, has lost nearly a hundred pounds.  People who haven’t seen her in a while are amazed at the transformation that’s gone on in her body.  And often, the first question out of their mouths is “how did the surgery go?’  They simply don’t believe her when she says that she lost the weight by eating the right amounts of the right foods and exercising for an hour every morning. 

So often these days, we want the easy fix.  We look for the most reward possible for the least amount of effort.  We’re indoctrinated with the ‘easy button’ mentality.  A  popular office supply store has even taken the concept of “easy” and made it their premier marketing technique.

 I wonder – how often do we let that thinking seep into our spiritual lives?  How often do we look at someone whose life exudes the power and fullness of God and wonder what magic button they pushed to get it?   

Weight loss and spiritual growth are both attainable by anyone….but it takes effort. There are no ‘easy buttons’ in  real life.  We look at people who experience dramatic weight loss or who always seem to exist in the very presence of God, and what we see are the RESULTS of their efforts.  Because we aren’t there as they struggle for their goals, we have a hard time comprehending that place between the start and the finish. What we don’t see right away are the thousand invisible mornings spent in a gym or those mornings spent in prayer and in the Word.  Those efforts, those disciplines, are what bring results. 

Hosea 6:3 speaks of the goal of  those thousand invisible mornings spent with the Lord. “Oh, that we might know the LORD! Let us press on to know him! Then he will respond to us as surely as the arrival of dawn or the coming of rains in early spring."   

Don’t press the easy button. Press ON.