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Picking your struggle

Matthew 16:25 

“For whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me will find it” 

Honestly this past week has been quite hard, and if you’re a consistent reader of this blog, you’re probably saying in the back of your mind “well what’s new?”. Despite the difficulty of this week, I came to a realisation: a realisation that I think we should all adopt in our lives. Our lives are a sequence of struggles: not always bad, some worse than others, but something seems to be always going on. It’s very easy to dwell on those issues and feel like you will never endure, but what’s the alternative? When we gave our lives to Christ, we made a decision: to fully devote ourselves to Him. Sometimes we forget that the decision we made wasn’t unitary: it’s a daily choice to pick up our cross. The alternative to the struggle we face as Christians is to be in the world: to dwell in a life of sin. We know that sin gives temporary pleasure but everlasting pain: so... which struggle are we going to pick? 

The assumption I think society has embedded in our lives is that being a Christian is easy. But if we really examine the life of Jesus and everything He endured, and we strive to live a life like His, it shouldn’t be surprising when problems or hardships come our way. The evidence of being a Christian isn’t the lack of struggle, but rather your ability to endure it.  

Looking at the verse, we see that our lives are a sacrificial choice. It's either we lose or gain. In this world it can probably look like we’re losing our lives when we give it to the one who owns it, however we are truly gaining it. It’s not always a smooth journey when we put our faith in Jesus, a life of no struggle was never promised: but a life that is fulfilling was.  

When I was younger, there was one time where I was in a bit of a mood. My brother could clearly see this, and so I asked him a question. “As you get older, does life get easier?”. He replied by saying, “It doesn’t get easier, you just learn how to manage it”. As Christians, I think that speaks to us, as we mature more in Christ, our problems don’t automatically fly away, but rather we are more submissive on who we run to: God.  

 

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