On choosing EASY.

In our office at work we have one of those EASY buttons. You know the Staples mascot that you see in the commercials that is pushed when someone wants something to be easy instantly? Ours sits on our conference table and I think we all make a point to push it at the most inopportune moments. Or sometimes at just the right moments. Usually it's Jon that pushes it after we finish a really easy discussion and come to a quick conclusion and we all laugh. "That was easy." Or I push it after a really HARD discussion, and we all laugh again at the irony. If only it really was just THAT easy.

I wish sometimes that life did have a real EASY button. I would probably become addicted to it and overuse it. We all would. We already are addicted to EASY (drive thrus, instant music in our ears, online banking, cell phones). The other night, I was supposed to be attending a class and after my last meeting for the day, I decided the better option would be to go home and tackle the long list of things to get done. Like the mountain of clean laundry sitting on my bed that I'd been sleeping with for a few days (truth: a week). When I got home, I got so overwhelmed with my list which went way deeper than my laundry, that I crawled into bed at 7:00 p.m. and took a two hour nap. One of my roommates came home, peeked in my room and asked if I was ok. I told her groggily, "I'm just so overwhelmed with life, I decided a nap was a better choice." We both laughed at the ridiculous nature of the statement and she let me be. Where was my EASY button then?

Easy. If only life were easy right? If only we didn't have to struggle through school. If only those conflict resolution conversations didn't have to happen. If only that person wasn't fighting cancer. If only we could all live life at a pace that belongs on the beaches of Bermuda or the Cayman Islands. If only dating wasn't awkward. If only raising kids didn't involve dirty diapers and tantrums. If only my husband/wife would do everything I need him/her to without me even having to ask (really!?). If only it really was that easy. Except, if everything were easy, or if we had an EASY button where we could avoid hard things, how would our character be built? How would we know that when life gets hard we could stick it out and keep going? How would we ever become better people? We choose easy all the time though. We switch churches when we no longer like it. We leave a job when conflict isn't dealt with. We end relationships based on fear and falsehood. We LOVE easy.

If life were easy or we had an EASY button, we wouldn't long for heaven like we do. We wouldn't even anticipate that there is a better Kingdom being built and we wouldn't look for it. If everything were easy, what would life really consist of? Our fantasy worlds of easy aren't reality. And I think that's why we feel so let down and disappointed with life so often. We really never expected it to be hard. And I'm guessing that's what the rich man thought too when he walked away from Jesus because he couldn't keep his possessions (Mark 10:17-29). Life really never will be that easy, but the struggle and the fight hold so much more promise than the EASY button. And guess what? Since a real life EASY button doesn't exist, we'll have to make those choices on our own, which is more fulfilling than an EASY button. I can thank Staples for the laughter, but I won't choose to live my life that way all the time. I'll take my nap and then I'll get on with it.