The Hard Thing

I had a friend make a very bad decision recently.

She had two choices. One was really hard. It would have been very humbling in the immediate future, but in the long run it would have changed her and put her life on a path for positive change in Christ.

The other option was easy now. It immediately removed much of the pain and seemingly gave her a fresh start, but it set her life on path that will likely lead her away from the Lord.

Now granted, the decision is probably not this clear to her. I am not in her shoes, which gives me the benefit of objectivity. She can easily rationalize choosing the easy way. She can probably convince herself it’s what the Lord wants, but it is clearly the wrong decision.

She would see it is the wrong decision if she was me or any other Christian looking into her life who didn’t have to endure the pain of making the hard decision.

She failed to recognize that the hard thing and the right thing are usually the same thing.

It would have been easier for Jesus to accept Satan’s offer in the wilderness and get a kingdom without the pain of the cross. (Matthew 4:8-10). It is an offer that came again later through one of Jesus’ disciples. (Mark 8:33). Jesus even prayed God would take away the hard choice. (Luke 22:42).

But God didn’t remove the hard choice, and Jesus didn’t rationalize that the easy way was the right way. He didn’t decide that because God loved Him, God must not have wanted him to suffer.

Instead, Jesus chose the hard thing, and it was the right thing. But for Jesus choosing the hard thing there would be no forgiveness for our sins.

I’m glad Jesus didn’t choose the easy path. What difficult decisions are you facing right now? Will you choose the hard thing or the easy thing? GS

Leave a Reply