Life is Difficult

I applied my mind to study and to explore by wisdom all that is done under the heavens. What a heavy burden God has laid on mankind!
— Ecclesiastes 1:13

Many years ago, when I read M. Scott Peck’s The Road Less Traveled, I was hooked by the very first sentence:

“Life is difficult.”

Wait…what? 😅

It was strangely refreshing. Finally—honesty. Until then I assumed other people had discovered some secret path that made life easier than what I was experiencing. That single sentence popped the bubble.

Life is hard…for all of us.
But hard can also mean good.

I’ve heard countless couples say, “Marriage is hard work.” Sharon and I—forty-two years strong—prefer to say, “Marriage is good work.” Partnering to build a life together is a privilege. Every day feels like a gift.

Our culture keeps engineering a friction-free existence:

• Faster lanes
• Shorter lines
• Easier routes
• Less inconvenience

Meanwhile, Jesus keeps guiding people onto slower roads—roads where formation actually happens.

John Mark Comer, in Practicing the Way, notes:

“Spiritual formation is the slowest of all human movements…
The human soul doesn’t grow at digital speed.”

Maybe the “heavy burden” Ecclesiastes mentions isn’t punishment but reality. We were never meant to find ultimate fulfillment in temporary things. Something in us aches for more because we were made for more.

This is not our forever home.

Each of us is on a long journey toward wholeness. Deep inside, we long for shalom—peace, restoration, and life with God as it was meant to be.

“He has made everything beautiful in its time. He has also set eternity in the human heart…”
— Ecclesiastes 3:11

The road to wholeness isn’t fast, easy, or crowded.
But it is good.
Run the play—run down the road less traveled.

Finding Our Place in the Story

What if the difficult parts of your life are not interruptions to your spiritual growth, but the very place where God is forming you most deeply?