It’s a Hard Life

John 6:66 After this many of his disciples turned back and no longer walked with him.

One of the realities of walking the “Jesus Walk” is that at times it becomes difficult. The Christian life is difficult alot of the time. All of us are faced with challenges in this walk, which can either make us stronger or cause us to give up in despair and disappointment. Each of us face choices, which if followed, will move us forward, or cause us to drift back to old ways and bad actions.

The reality is that it is a choice. We have the freedom to choose. God gave that to us as agents of free will, to discover the power He can have in our lives. Strange as it may sound, God wants us to choose, because in the choosing we demonstrate who and what we have become. I know this sound simplistic; however, what we choose determines who we are and what we are. Wrong choices can result in wrong actions; right choices can produce right actions. What we need to learn is how to know the difference.

God wants us to choose because it is the only way we can fully understand the call He has for our lives. The Christian life is a series of difficult choices that will separate us from what the world is expecting and calling us to follow. Here is something to ponder. If our Christian choices don’t differentiate us from the rest of the world, why be a Christian? The life of a Christ follower has always been different than what this world expects. That’s the draw of Christianity, a higher call to a different life, a life of sacrifice and service.

And herein lies the problem. When faced with the choice that causes us to be different, which will separate us from the rest of the world, we draw back. It’s hard to be different, to live for others and not for self, to see things from a different perspective, and to love God above anything else. No one said it was going to be easy, only that it is possible. Yes, sometimes things get tough in the Christian life and we want to give in and give up, but the choice we make at that point will demonstrate what we are made of.

That is what is so sad about this passage above. Even the people of Jesus’ day, when faced with a difficult teaching decided to fall away and to turn aside. How easy it is to give up, to think that what we do makes little or no difference, to get caught in the lie that following Jesus is not worth it. On every side we are bombarded with the lies and desires of this life, which pull at our hearts to draw us away from Christ. Jesus knew it was going to happen, and Jesus knows today that people will fall away. But the call is still there. Come, follow, and believe.

Our answer should be the same as given in the next passage of John 6-69. So Jesus said to the Twelve, "Do you want to go away as well?" Simon Peter answered him, "Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life.”

The Christian life is hard…welcome to the ride of a lifetime.

Blessings, Rip