Tuesday, March 8
Looking for Easy
Jesus returned from the Jordan River full of the Holy Spirit, and was led by the Spirit into the wilderness. There he was tempted for forty days by the devil. He ate nothing during those days and afterward Jesus was starving. —Luke 4:1-2
I don’t like to go 40 minutes without a little nosh, but 40 days without nutrition?! When I listened to the K-2 Sunday school class ponder this story of Jesus’ temptation during a recent Zoom meeting, they too were drawn to the physical improbability.
Can you really go that long without eating? What about water?! They know, like we do, that Jesus lived in a human body just like ours, and he would have literally been starving without food for so long. (The kids decided he did get to drink water!)
I’m never at my best when I’m hungry and tired, but even if not at his physical best, Jesus stood firm against temptation as the devil offered solutions: food, power, glory.
Hungry, tired or even at my best, I often look for solutions of my own, shortcuts, or better yet efficiencies, ways to do my work or my life faster. Crock pot meals, Target Drive-up, Shipt, Amazon Prime, talk-to-text, email folders and filters, calendar reminders—I use them all. I’m always on the hunt for easy, or at least easier.
We’re not promised easy, no matter how much we want or feel like we deserve it. Sometimes doing hard things is exactly the right thing. I’ve done a lot of hard things over the last couple of years, from the minor, like ziplining and overnight camping with Jane’s Girl Scout troop, to the life-changing, like going back to professional, full-time work. Just living these last two years through the pandemic has been HARD, with capital letters, on us all.
Through it all, God is faithful, God’s love never changes. My awareness and understanding of that love is stronger because of the hard.
I’ll still look for and accept shortcuts in some areas of my life, but with my faith and my family, I will never settle for less than a fully embodied, rich and engaging love leading to deep, lasting joy. Joy isn’t always easy, but it’s here, even on the hard road.
Loving God, gather us in when things are hard. Embrace us, holding us close. Give us strength, give us mercy, give us love. Amen.
Mari Walker