Easy
“Come to me. Get away with me and you’ll recover your life. I’ll show you how to take a real rest. Walk with me and work with me—watch how I do it. Learn the unforced rhythms of grace…Keep company with me and you’ll learn to live freely and lightly.”
- Jesus of Nazareth
I’ve got some really bad news to share with you, things are never going to get any easier. In fact, the stakes are just going to keep increasing as you go through your life. And there is a paradox that I am beginning to highlight in many coaching conversations:
We tend to over-simplify the situations of others and the difficulties they are facing, and we tend to over-complicate our own.
And while that may seem wildly obvious, try to remember it the next time you are reflecting on your situation or someone else’s. As a person who is listening as a third-party advisor to a lot of leaders, I can tell you that it is incredibly common. Noticing it in others has made me pretty ridiculously aware of it in my life as well.
And as challenging as life may seem in this season, let’s look at a few examples of how challenging they will likely be in the future.
A toddler telling you “no” is not nearly as daunting as a teenager disagreeing with your parenting.
The messes you have to clean up for a baby are laughable compared to the ones you will have to help with as your child moves toward adulthood.
The consequences of a six-year old’s accident on their bike is a whole different world than those of your sixteen-year old’s in your car.
The stress about saving for retirement may seem incredibly insignificant compared to the cancer and other health issues you may be dealing with once you get there.
You may fondly remember the fear and loneliness you felt in starting your business compared to the responsibility of keeping your business going and caring for several dozen employees.
And I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but it just isn’t going to get easier. It is going to get different and be more complicated, but it is not going to get easier.
So what is Jesus prattling on about in those verses above? Rest? Living freely and lightly? Unforced rhythms of grace?
Part of me wants to snuggle up into those ideas like a warm blanket on a cold day and another part of me wishes he would keep that stuff to himself! I mean, does he know my life and my circumstance?! Well, that is precisely the point, right?
He knows what I have faced, what I am currently facing, and what I will face in the future. He doesn’t come, magic wand in hand, to make it all go away and slow down all that change and increase the complexity of our lives as we, our children, and our businesses mature.
In fact, he offers another way, a different perspective, or a new attitude. He doesn’t say that we should all just put on a happy face and resiliently ignore the challenges we face. He says that “not in spite of, but because of” and even “through” all those challenges we can find a more peaceful way to live.
It just takes an attitude check and a different way of viewing things. And attitude, as we all know, is 100% a choice. Regardless of our circumstances.
Things will not get easier, but learning to live freely and lightly can make pretty much everything feel that way.
Consider
Is your life stressful and overwhelming?
Have you been secretly hoping that the circumstances would change and make things easier?
How much time have you invested in trying to find a new perspective or attitude?