Americans are losing the ability to deal with hardship; many of us simply do not know how to deal with life’s realities! We (yes, I include myself!) too often confuse what is inconvenient with what is truly hardship. We grow irritated when asked to step outside of our comfort zone. We refuse to engage with the normal rhythms of life with acceptance; aging, sickness, even death- and become graceless and mean because of it. Parents often work at eliminating every stressful situation in a child’s life, creating a person who is overwhelmed by ‘adulting.’

Tish Harrison Warren, author of What Grows in Weary Lands: On Christian Resilience, reminds us that stress and difficulty can serve the purpose of making us deeper, stronger, and better persons. That may sound ridiculous to a person who has been trained from infancy that being happy is life’s highest aim. Warren said “If your chief identity is as a consumer and your main goal in life is individual happiness or having an ‘Instagrammable’ life, then anything that seems hard and threatens a sense of bliss is something to be avoided. If that is the story we tell ourselves, our goal will be to as comfortable as possible for as long as we can.”  With great wisdom she also says, “What brings our life meaning – faith, relationships, generative work, the commitment to celibacy or marriage, and parenting – is difficult.” (Christianity Today, page 80, May/June 2026) 

The Scripture, which should shape the life and values of those who follow Christ, is filled with stories of hardship, difficulty, and resilience in the lives of the faithful! Revelation lauds those who faithfully remain through tests and trials calling them ‘overcomers.’

Abraham left the city where he was born to follow God’s call to become a ‘great nation’ through which the whole earth would be blessed. He was promised an heir and waited through disappointment for many decades before the miraculous birth of his son, Isaac.

Joseph, pressed through 2 long decades of rejection, false accusation, and imprisonment before he experienced the promise that God had made to him in his teen years. Those hard years formed the character in him that made him the Prime Minister of Egypt in a time of national crisis. He summarizes his life with these words – “Joseph named his firstborn Manasseh and said, ‘It is because God has made me forget all my trouble and all my father’s household.’  The second son he named Ephraim and said, ‘It is because God has made me fruitful in the land of my suffering.’  (Genesis 41:51-52)

David was anointed to be the next king of Israel by Samuel but then found himself chased through the hills as a fugitive, threatened with death by a mad king, and struggling with mutinous followers. He waited through many long years to take the throne. In times of hardship, we learn that “David was greatly distressed because the men were talking of stoning him; each one was bitter in spirit because of his sons and daughters. But David found strength in the Lord his God.”  (1 Samuel 30)

Jesus left the perfection of His Glory to embrace humanity and ultimately to suffer death on the Cross. He did so for the purposes of our salvation. Paul writes that Jesus “made himself nothing by taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to death— even death on a cross! Therefore God exalted him to the highest place and gave him the name that is above every name.”  (Philippians 2)

Not for a moment I am suggesting that we go looking for hardship or that we try to make martyrs of ourselves, but for Christ’s sake (literally!) we need to stop running from hard things and avoiding the call of God. James says “Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, a whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance. Let perseverance finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything. … Blessed is the one who perseveres under trial because, having stood the test, that person will receive the crown of life that the Lord has promised to those who love him.”  (James 1)

Peter, who knew a thing or two about hardship and failure, urged us to choose to be faithful as we hold onto this promise. “In his kindness God called you to share in his eternal glory by means of Christ Jesus. So, after you have suffered a little while, he will restore, support, and strengthen you, and he will place you on a firm foundation.”  (1 Peter 5) He sees that the obvious experience of the disciple of Jesus is to live counter-culturally and thus, to know hardship.

Friend, the best life, one that is fully engaged with others and committed to excellence, will be hard from time to time. Choose to really LIVE, refusing the call of the ‘broad way’ to destruction and following the way of Jesus.

Here’s a word from the Word. “Patient endurance is what you need now, so that you will continue to do God’s will. Then you will receive all that he has promised.
 “For in just a little while, the Coming One will come and not delay.
And my righteous ones will live by faith. But I will take no pleasure in anyone who turns away.”
But we are not like those who turn away from God to their own destruction. We are the faithful ones, whose souls will be saved.” (Hebrews 10)

Press on. Choose the best way. Faith is our victory.  Amen
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