A Hard Will

I was driving home after helping my friend take care of some stuff today and I was talking to myself in my car. Yes, talking. You know you do it, too. I was talking to myself and to Jesus about life and, the subject of my last note on here, satisfaction.

I've been praying very hard for God to lead me, direct me, speak to me, tell me what he wants me to do since I've had a lot of tough decisions to make lately that affect not only me but my wife, our unborn child, and our future. I want a good life for my family, you know. I want a big, delicious dinner every night and a comfortable bed and a hot shower. Not too much to ask for, right? Seriously, these have been things I've used to gauge God's will and direction in my life. "If I don't have a great dinner every night, maybe God is withholding something from me because I'm out of his will." Really. "I must be doing something wrong if my hot water has been turned off. Maybe God is trying to show me a mistake I've made." Don't laugh. We've all made foolish assumptions about God before.

We Christians want an easy life. But I'm realizing more and more now that no matter where we are, no matter what happens, no matter what job we have or what we're doing, life is hard. Life is always going to be hard and it will probably only get harder as time goes on, and that's just how it is. But now for the clincher: THAT DOESN'T MEAN WE ARE OUT OF GOD'S WILL!

Just because we have struggles, nothing comes easily, everything we set our hand to is hard and troublesome doesn't mean God has left us or that we're living in sin and being punished for it or that we are out of God's will in any way. 'Tis the nature of life. Struggle, pain, hardship, suffering, discomfort, poverty, sacrifice. These things fill our lives. But so does the Holy Spirit.

Take a rich man from Beverly Hills and take a poor man from the slums of India. Which one does God love more? If they are both saved, is one favored over the other? No. They are simply called to different areas with different abilities, different futures, different everything, but God's will can be realized in them both equally. So why do we Christians -- WHY DO I -- so often determine the direction and will of God by what gives us the most material blessing and easiest life?