"It's easy but hard, you know."

In my last post I wrote about one of the lessons I learned from working with wonderful translators in Panama. I had the amazing opportunity to work with two brilliant Panamanians, and I greatly miss both of them. While they may not know it, each of them taught me something that I will carry with me for the rest of my life. It's funny how a short story or sentence can redirect one's thought process in a monumental way. The following quote did just that, and caused me to ponder long and hard about being a missionary.

"It's easy but hard, you know."

That is what S. said me when we were talking about reaching out where we are placed. A simple little phrase that holds a lot truth. Every time that I have the chance to serve, the fact that God picked me to represent Him, makes me feel extremely special; yet there are many times that I will talk myself out of an opportunity that He puts in front of me. Why is it that even with God's love as motivation, His work is so hard to do? As children of God, one would think that it would be easy to do the things that please Him. I feel that I should be bursting at the seams to share the wonderful gift that I have, and yet I often don't. I'm not the only one who has been in this predicament. In Romans 7, Paul describes his struggle: "For what I want to do I do not do, but what I had I do...So I find this law at work: When I want to do good, evil is right there with me." Here Paul, successfully illustrates what the life of a prisoner to sin looks like. A constant war raging within, and we have no control over it. Sadly, it is our nature to be slaves to sin, and thus targets of God's wrath (Ephesians 2:3b). Here we are, humans - created to worship and glorify God, and yet we have chosen to let sin corrupt us so that we are no longer able to do what we were created for!

Thank goodness God chose not to leave us in this hopeless state. If fact, our God is so amazing that He has given us everything we need to live a godly life! (2 Peter 1:3-4) I can't wrap my mind around how awesome our God is!