All too Easy

It can be all too easy to fall into a routine. All too easy to claim victory in a war when you only managed to fight a skirmish to a draw. All too easy to justify mistakes. All too easy to judge other's weaknesses while excusing your own. All too easy to take the easy path. All too easy to hate your enemies and love those who love you. All too easy to surround yourself with friends for advisors. All too easy to hear only what you want. All too easy to do only what comes naturally.

We want life to be easy, and we like to rest, letting the course of our life flow ever downhill. But we are called to run, to fight, to persevere. To pick ourselves up when we fall, not to wallow in the mud. We are called to endure, to be tested, to be put through the fire so that undesirable things will be burnt away.

This means different things for different people. Some people lose their children. Some watch their marriages decline into a bitter, never-ending fight (as I watch sitcoms, is there any other kind?). Some see their hopes paraded in front of them, forced to watch the course they wanted for themselves lived out in other people's shoes. Some people are hungry, poor, and sick - and some people have to watch their loved ones go through it.

It is a conceit of oppulence that Americans believe life should be easy, as though ease is a birthright. But it is the meek, the humble, the poor, and the weeping that will inherit the earth, enjoy comfort, and be filled.