So true, I'm finding this one to be a hard truth lately. I need to do more listening to God rather than talking at Him.

True indeed, but with this caveat: when we abandon who we are to God, he gives us back ourselves, only ourselves as we truly are, with the false things pruned away.

Thanks, AM, for saying what I was thinking, only better.

Yes, well said AM.

Thanks.

Milly, I'm with you; I think most of us are. Someone at the symposium I attended last week said, "Most of us get Samuel backwards; we say, 'Listen, Lord, for your servant is speaking.'"

Again, good point for the Mariner.

I think it's important to remember that, as Christians, we still retain some form of hyphenated identities--else the phrase about "every tribe, tongue, and nation" is meaningless.

I even think there can be some extension to other forms of identity--such as "Christian-poet" or "Christian-engineer."

But in any case, all should be submitted to God, so that the only truly certain form of identity is in Him, and everything erives from that.

Exactly, God doesn't want us to come to Him so he can turn us into someone else. He wants us to come to him so that he can remove our chains and through Him we will become ourselves as we are and ought to be.

I'm must admit that I get Samuel's prayer backwards a lot. Talking is easy because it's all about me. Listening is hard because it's all about Him.

Unfortunately, that statement in the post is completely false.

Jesus Himself refutes it:

"For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light."
---Matthew 11:30

Christianity is hard for one reason and one reason only: the modern Church is disobedient to the Lord's will.

When the Church, for whatever reason, refuses to live as it ought, then Christianity is extremely difficult to practice. But if the Church is living as Christ commands, then one's sacrifice of self becomes that much easier (and that much more fulfilling to the Body of Christ).

Few people would say that it is difficult to live as an American. But imagine if all the truckers, pilots, and train engineers walked off the job forever. This country would come to a standstill and chaos would reign. Living here would become an enormous hardship, and every simple act would become nearly impossible to do.

All because the transportation workers refused to do their jobs.

After being filled with the Holy Spirit, the very first thing the new Church did after Pentecost was to ensure that no one in the new Church lacked for even one thing. They readily gave up their lives for the good of the whole Church, but they also knew others were surrendering their lives to support them, too. It was a mutual work that brought mutual results and mutual health. That's how it works when everything is working according to Christ's Kingship.

But when we live disconnected lives that horde what God has given us, when we think only of our own good and not that of our neighbor, when we choose career and comfort over serving the Lord wholeheartedly, then yes, it becomes nearly impossible to be a Christian. And for those honestly trying to lay down their lives, it means an even greater sacrifice than it should because the support of the rest of the Body simply is not there to bear them up.

And that's where we are in America 2008.

Dan, first, thanks for the corrective (and I thank everyone else who has weighed in here also).

I posted the statement above (shorn of all context, unfortunately - the one who said it had just finished talking about the simplicity of Christianity) because I, and some of my family members, are currently struggling with this concept, with the cost of discipleship.

All that being said, I would offer this corrective back to you: I believe Jesus taught a "Both/And" message when it comes to the easyness/hardness of the Christian life. It is both simple, light, and easy, and also extremely hard. I certainly don't want to get in a back and forth with scriptures (the scriptures don't war with each other, so they shouldn't be used that way ;-), but I don't think the statement in this post can be so easily dismissed, nor do I think the light Yoke teaching refutes it (I'd prefer to say it "balances" it).

For example:

"Whoever finds his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it." Matthew 10:39

"Then Jesus told his disciples, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me." Matthew 16:24

And many others.

Your criticism of our culture has validity, of course. But I don't take as dim a view of the church in America as you do. There are many bodies of believers that are true "bodies" - supporting fellowships where the Christian life is lived and lived well.

And I certainly don't think our American church culture is "the" reason that the Christian life is hard.

Dan's right about the general deficiency in the American Church to live out covenant community. He's wrong about the statement in the post and the relation of that deficiency to it.

I think it's a good assertion and I wouldn't even "yes, but" it as earlier commenters did. I see it as a good summation of "Deny yourself, take up your cross, and follow me." I see it as a good summation of crucifying our flesh.
Perhaps one or two of the disciples chimed in when Jesus said that, noting, "Yes, but you mean deny our false self, right?" to which Jesus surely politely nodded and rewarded with a gold star.

The problem is us. Christianity would not be easy if we only had a little bit of help from our friends. The reason Jesus said his burden was easy and his yoke was light is because when Jesus sets us free, we are really free. There's a counterintuitive thrust there, a bittersweet irony illustrated by the glorious saving beauty of a triumphant king hanging like bloody pulp on a cross.

Let's own our stuff. Not having people to bear my burdens doesn't help, and we certainly are starving for communal grace in our churches, but the reason the Christian life is difficult is because we are sinful people. And living Jesus' way requires death.

Bill,

The Scriptures you quote don't apply to the basic statement that "Christianity is difficult." They say instead, "This is what you need to do." Those are not the same thing.

The difficulty is what we make of it, not the reality of whether it's difficult or not. A quick overview of Acts doesn't reveal the early Church grousing about how hard it was to die to self. They just did it. That's what the Holy Spirit accomplishes in a person's life. That's what being born again means.

That Paul, he sure was a grouser. Didn't he realize it actually wasn't difficult; it was just what he made of it? ;-)

If it were easy, the Scriptures wouldn't characterize entrance into kingdom life as death. It took a Man dying, and unless you believe saving faith makes us sinless this side of heaven, this whole "it's actually easy, you just have to have a different perspective and get to work" is pretty Osteenish.

I am reminded for some reason now of the crucifixion scene in "The Life of Brian" . . .

Actually, no, Jesus didn't say, "My yoke is easy"--that's not a good translation. Better would be "My yoke is well-fitted," as opposed to the Pharisaic yoke, which was "one size fits all." (Compared to the yoke of the Pharisees, Jesus' yoke was definitely easy.) As Craig Keener, observes, "Jesus interprets the laws according to their original purpose, to which he is privy."

Keener also observes, correctly, that "Jesus' yoke is not lighter [than that of the Pharisees] because he demands less (5:20), but because he bears more of the load with the burdened (23:4; cf. 1 Jn 5:3)."

AM, sorry to misquote the original. I do agree with your interpretation.

I find we constantly have to point out that "a new command I give you" (the Sermon on the Mount, etc) wasn't actually Jesus making things easier; ie. the Pharisees were about legalism and Jesus was about love and peace and tolerance. He was talking about heart change, which is infinitely harder than behavior modification. Not killing someone is a lot easier than not hating them.

Ehh, you didn't. DLE used the standard translation (it's not a good one, but it is the standard), and you simply replied to it. And yeah, Jesus takes the Law and takes it further, which of course makes it a lot harder to fake.

"Christianity has not been tried and found wanting, it has been found difficult and left untried." --G. K. Chesterton