At My Age......On Easy Street

The Bible rings with some serious stories of faith, and the men and women involved become examples to me as I have reached for faith all these many years. I admire with reverence the way that these men and women of old dealt with difficult odds and how God accomplished incredible things through them. But what happens in my live when I am given the chance to fight the same fight? Do I rise to the challenge?

I'm afraid that in these later day chapters I often live with a glaring contradiction. I want to know God more than ever before. I want God to be more real and I want life to have a deeper meaning than ever before. And yet I want all this without any serious cost or effort.  Am I in an entitlement mind set?  Haven't I  paid my dues over the years?
  
I tend to assume that life is best when the waters are still—that life is best during those times when everything "makes sense." "This is how it's supposed to be," I tell myself. But just as soon as I do, the water around me gets rough, my boat is rocked and I don’t even have one, and I am back in another struggle of one kind or another. As my Dad would ask, What in the world is going on and what’s it coming too? Why doesn't God just allow me to stay comfortable and content in my elder years? Are the bad times merely distortions of the way life should be? Should the road of faith be an easy one?

Then, I consider some key figures in the Bible and what they went through: Abraham was asked to give up his own son, the prize of his life, and he was willing to do it. Moses could have stayed in Egypt and enjoyed the pleasures of royalty, but instead he led the people of Israel through years of struggle. Because of his faith, the prophet Daniel defied a king, risking death in a lion's den. The three young men were willing to go into the burning furnace because of their faith, whether God rescued them or not. Before he was king, David patiently endured the rage of Saul because he believed God. Esther courageously risked her life to go before the king and beg for his mercy with the strength of these marvelous words: "If I perish, I perish."

It was in the toughest acts of faith that these men and women came the closest to God and found life's deepest meaning. It was not the provision of comfort or happiness that led them to a deeper knowledge of God—it was often the lack of it. Is it possible that a life where everything stays calm and unchallenged isn't what I really need? Does peace mean as much if I never experience calamity? Does my heart ring with gratitude if I‘m never in want? Does happiness bring a brilliant bald headed smile if I never taste sadness?

From this day forward I commit to not idealizing an easy life, so that I do not find, at the end, that life becomes hollow. The writer of Hebrews has a much better challenge: "Let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us" (Hebrews 12:1). The one I follow, the author and perfecter of my faith, lived a life of similar proportions, who for the joy set out before him endured the Cross, scorning its shame. He now sits at the right hand of the throne of God, beckoning me onward, even through times of struggle.