If I could single handedly dispel a myth, I'd like to. The myth is that life with Jesus is all happy trails, and that if I'm walking with Him and "doing the right things" then He'll bless me and it will be pure bliss. There are numerous reasons to reject this myth. First is that a life of ease is rarely a life of growth. I remain convinced that God is more interested in our growth and maturation, our becoming more like Jesus, than He is interested in our happiness and ease. Second is that we have no Biblical precedent suggesting a life with God is a life of ease. Let's begin with Jesus' own life - Jesus who was God's son. His life was challenged with rejection, betrayal, misunderstanding and injustice. It ended with a torturous death. Then there are the disciples, frequently challenged by Jesus, often encouraged, sometimes rebuked. If we look at Peter as a case study, I would describe Peter's life with Jesus as one of rigorous love. This is getting closer to the real thing - rigorous love. Jesus calls us out of ourselves, into the work of the Father, but perhaps most challenging, into the character of the Father. This matter of our character being transformed to become more like His is like a blacksmith banging on his metal object to take it from useless and unattractive to a forged and beautiful implement to serve the living God.
Life with Jesus is much more about the quality of life than about the happiness of it. Once we have begun to really enter the Jesus centered life, the depth, the meaning, the love, the humbling, the shaping, the being freed of ourselves and called to something higher - all make for a life of remarkable depth and quality. Compared to life apart from Jesus, we might say, "it is far more rigorous but far better." My friend Tyler remarked on this saying, "Yes, Peter's life was ruined by Jesus for anything other than life with Jesus." It was a remarkable statement which clarifies that the life Peter was living was ruined by Jesus because once he had known life with Jesus, nothing else would satisfy the same way. It was hard at times, but it was so much better than life apart from Jesus that Peter stayed with it. Jesus asked the disciples, "are you going to leave me too?" Peter replied "Where else are we going to go, you alone have the words of life." It's as though Peter had thought about it - the "where else" suggests he'd thought about departing and considered other options, only to find upon deep consideration that none of those options had life, Jesus-life, real-life, in them.
Tyler's statement is similar to anything in life where we get introduced to the best version of something. Once we do, the cheaper version doesn't satisfy any more. Once you've had a sip of the very best wine, the cheap stuff you've been drinking and sort of enjoying, now no longer will do.
