Of Course the Journey Is Hard

Our local congregation has a number of new Christians who have come from difficult backgrounds. Addictions, abuse, broken relationships, poverty, injustice, and sin. Sometimes the difficulties come from what others have done to them. Sometimes they are the result of sinful choices they have made.  

We also have conversations about Jesus with people who are desperate for a better life. A life without all the pain and hurt. A different life, a new life.  

We have found it critical to teach a healthy view of what it actually means for a Christian to live as a disciple. We teach them why this world is hard, how Jesus helps survive this world, and that there is a new world coming.

It started in the Garden. Abundant food. Life was good. Adam and Eve lived in a perfect world. Satan lied about God and His word. He planted seeds of doubt. Eve and then Adam listened to Satan and sinned against God.  

The result of their sin was that they had to leave the Garden. And life became hard. Work to eat. Pain in childbirth. Life got hard. Sin always makes life hard.

But God sent Jesus to fix our mess and to pay for our sins by dying on the cross. And when we believe that, we share in his death through baptism. We live in community, partaking of his body and blood when we assemble together.

But life is still hard. Jesus himself reminded his followers (John 16:33) that they would have trouble in this world—but to take heart because he has overcome the world.

Pain, sin, grief, broken relationships, natural disasters, death. Life is still hard, but Jesus will enable us to survive and even thrive in this world.

And the day is coming when life will not be so hard. The hope of heaven is real. Revelation 21:1-4 is the promise of a new heaven and a new earth. A place where God wipes away all tears. Where there will be no more pain or tears. No more mourning or death.  

A place where life is once again perfect.  

Lots of our people need this message. And to be honest, so do we all.