The Battle Against Easy

Our society has systematically engaged in the impulse within us. The “don’t want to” aspect of our brains. The “serve it on a silver platter or I don’t want it” perspective.
I’ll tell you something, easy IS better in the moment.
As a busy mom, I want easy most of the time. Easy dinner, easy clean up, easy bedtime, easy, all of it.
And then I realize, easy is an invitation to move faster; more mindlessly. Promoting a lack of feelings as we skip through our days as blindly as possible to avoid emotions. Until we are at a pace that’s unsustainable. We wonder why our lives are full of angst. We crave a quiet minute so we give our kids the “impulse at the fingertips” electronic of choice that can open up the world within seconds to their developing brains. Yes, they are quiet. They are captivated. A moment of peace. Fabricated by the peace thief.
I’m quite convinced we are making the problem bigger.
It’s time to begin the battle against easy.
Ironically, It will not be easy.
Infact it will be downright exhausting.
Battle through.
You are undoing all that’s been done on a level of subtlety.
Crawling out of the grave we dug.
True peace ensues little by little as the habits of ease are broken one by one.
You may feel you are the only one, trust me there are more like you. Find support, you will need it. Otherwise you will want to sneak back to the easy road. You will question your sanity as you go against the monstrous perpetual battle of information that’s inundated our lives. If it’s not electronics, it’s the pace of our communities. Work, sports, the board room meetings, whatever it is, it’s betraying you. It’s convinced you, you can’t sit still. Once you try, you find it to be almost painful. Your brain is used to this overstimulated; over-exhausted, hamster wheel of go go go. Sit through it. Solitude awaits. There’s no easy way to peace, it’s a battle to the finish line. As you near it though, you see glimmers of what’s to come. It’s appealing but seems unattainable, like the never ending hallway that only comes in your nightmares. It’s something you can reach. Keep going, stand firm. This way is a better way. It’s the hard earned grit way. Our souls will thank us. Our stressed out maximum capacity bodies will thank us. Your finances will thank you because you are no longer paying for your coping juice of choice and your Dr will begin telling you you are looking younger and younger. That’s the secret, lowering your stress. You will find you have more time to do the things that matter like build relationships instead of being a slave to the grind. We are deceived to think we can only handle what’s down the easy road, and that may be true if you’re trying to do life in your own strength. Philippians 4:13 says “I can do all things through Christ who gives me strength.” We don’t have to do anything outside of our comfort in our own strength but we do have to ask the One who created us, to go before us; alongside us and behind us to help do the things that are hard. It’s a choice. Choose easy for the time being; or choose to enter the battle and come out on the other side free of the weights you’ve been shackled by for who knows how long. Will you make that choice?