We are now approaching the end of the first month of the new year. Many who have made resolutions have long abandoned the idea of completing them. Still, the year is relatively new to us. We are still thinking about what is to come, what things we might want to achieve this year, and feeling renewed by the idea of newness.
I believe that’s what most take reassurance in: the chance to start again. This time, we can do things different. We resolve and, hopefully, it will be so. At least we can give it our best try.
My advice to you in the new year? Challenge yourself to do hard things.
God calls us to do hard things
A few years ago during a seminary class, my students were finishing a month-long study on HIV ministry. The words “do hard things” stumbled out of my mouth. Many of us long for a word of ease and comfort in January. The ravages and challenges of life, those aren’t things that interest us. We want to pray away everything at the altar and hope for the best. Many of us don’t take the time, nor make the investment, in the things of life that are not easy. We don’t like things that don’t have a quick, nor a simple, answer. When we don’t have an answer, we often falter and flail about, and completely lose sight of what we are supposed to be doing.
I told my Seminarians that God desires us to do hard things. We aren’t here for the easy things, the things with quick answers, the things that seem obvious. We are here for the things that are the exact opposite. God has placed us here to handle the things that don’t have quick answers, to stand with those who hurt, to encourage others through the hard, difficult questions, to be voices of reason and challenge in a world that seldom makes sense, and frequently leaves discomfort. Rather than avoiding those things, we need to do the work of ministry that is hard. Stop looking for easy answers, and start doing hard things.
We sow what we reap
Many complain that the church doesn’t see the spiritual movement of God like we have in years past. There’s all sorts of speculation as to why. I don’t believe that God isn’t moving, but I believe we often miss God’s movement because our focus is different than it used to be. We are unwilling to do the genuine, serious work of God. Walking with God, Kingdom work, as many call it now, isn’t running around the church when the keyboardist changes chords or singing fun music. Sure, praise and worship is awesome. Yes, we should do those things, but those things are expressions of our relationship with God. They don’t define our work in this world. That means what we do – and who we are – is what defines our experience.
How much you get out of your faith dictates how much you will reap from it, and if all you are doing is sitting back, waiting for a song to cause you to jump and shout, as easy things parade around you, then you aren’t going to reap much from that.
The parable of the sower
Matthew 13:1-9 tells us:
On that day after Jesus went out of the house, He sat by the lake. And such a large crowd gathered around Him that He got into a boat to sit while the whole crowd stood on the shore. He told them many things in parables, saying: “Listen! A sower went out to sow. And as he sowed, some seeds fell along the path, and the birds came and devoured them. Other seeds fell on rocky ground where they did not have much soil. They sprang up quickly because the soil was not deep. But when the sun came up, they were scorched, and because they did not have sufficient root, they withered. Other seeds fell among the thorns, and they grew up and choked them. But other seeds fell on good soil and produced grain, some a hundred times as much, some sixty, and some thirty. The one who has ears had better listen!” (NET)
Lessons from the parable
The parable of the sower is interpreted to mean many things to different people. If we look at it without a lot of attachment, it is a story that teaches us about doing difficult things well. We also learn that however much we put into our situations is what we will receive back. It takes time and effort to grow plants; it’s not as simple as throwing some seeds somewhere, hoping they will grow. The evidence of that is seen in the parable:
- Some seed falls wherever it will
- Some seed falls where the soil isn’t deep enough
- Some fell on the rocks
- Some grew up amongst thorns
- Some fell where the wind carried it, and it was easy for it to land there
Nothing that fell where it was easy, blowing with the wind, lived unto harvest. None of those plants made it to rooting. The conditions weren’t right. It was the seed, planted in good soil, that brought about a harvest. Everything had to be just so, just purposed, maintained, monitored, and carefully observed, to bring about the desired harvest.
The reality of each new year
So many of us go into each new year, resolute that this one will be different…only for them to be the same. The word we have received, that easy, carefree word, never took root because it was there to produce something on the surface. We felt emotional and were stirred until the next thing came along. Then, we hoped those feelings, those emotions, would last us through each and every storm…but they can’t. Emotions can’t carry us through our seasons. Emotions, like ease, have a way of changing and fleeing. We can scream and cry at the altar a million times, but the breakthrough doesn’t come when we keep doing the same things.
Easy isn’t getting us anywhere as a church! If we want to break through our faith, we need to stop seeking the easy road out for everything, because God hasn’t called us to remain in the world to do things that are easy and casual. He’s put us here for hard things. We will find our purpose in hard things, if we are willing to rise to the challenge. The Spirit of God flows when it’s difficult, because the Spirit hovers and moves in dark places. Such was true at Creation, at Pentecost, and now. The release, the breakthrough, comes only when we are willing to break, because we have allowed that which is hard to change us.
The things we cannot change end up changing us
I once saw a saying: “Sometimes the things we cannot change end up changing us.” That’s their purpose: for things to get hard, and for us to change ourselves. The change we seek, within and without, is in those hard places, in those things that force us to grow up and grow in God, and only when we are willing to take them on, will we find the change we seek.
Whether you take my advice today, or you take it in this new year, or you take it whenever you are poised and ready to do so, heed the call: do hard things. The easy way out might seem easier today, but in the whole of your life, you will keep failing if you never confront, nor take on, the challenge of that which is hard.
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