There’s a part of us that’s certainly willing to take the path of least resistance in life. But another part of us also enjoys being tested – placed in challenging situations to overcome. And rising to the occasion of these challenges is part of where we find life and meaning.
To be sure, immaturity or laziness leads many down the path of doing as little as possible. They want to enjoy, and perhaps feel entitled to receive, all the benefits of someone else’s hard work.
And, to be fair, this is part of how we share the load with one another. There’s no need for life to be hard on every front when we can leverage our collective strength to support each other. It’s nice to have at least a few areas in life where there is greater ease and the pure joy of receiving the blessings of others with very little being required of us.
All the same, we were created to work, and part of this work is the joy of a good challenge.
For instance, our jobs become very boring when we’re not faced with new challenges to confront. And our relationships can also become stale without the challenge of discovering each other anew in each season. Likewise, part of spiritual maturity is the growth from milk to solid food, and enjoying the richness of our faith that comes from wrestling with weightier matters.
Certainly, there will be days in which we wish things weren’t so hard. And we might be tempted to take that path of least resistance. But the dull impotence this brings is not a cost we’re willing to pay. We much rather freely choose difficult challenges because this is the path of true life and joy.
In the end, there’s no need to make things harder than necessary. But it’s okay to enjoy a good challenge as well. Our souls often come alive under such testing.
Photo by Brad Neathery on Unsplash
