Why Is Life So Hard?

I was going to write about how hard life has been, but I think John Eldredge says it rather eloquently, so I'll let him say it instead:

Let's start with why life is so dang hard. You try to lose a little weight, but it never seems to happen. You think of making a shift in your career, maybe even serving God, but you never actually get to it. Perhaps a few of you do even make the jump, but it rarely pans out the way you thought. You try to recover something in your marriage, and your spouse looks at you with a glance that says, "Nice try," or "Isn't it a little late for that?" and the thing actually blows up into an argument in front of the kids. Yes, we have our faith. But even there--maybe especially there--it all seems to fall rather short of the promise. There's talk of freedom and abundant life, of peace like a river and joy unspeakable, but we see precious little of it, to be honest.

Why is it that, as Tillich said, it's only "here and there in the world and now and then in ourselves" we see any evidence of a new creation? Here and there, now and then. In other words . . . not much. When you stand the side by side, the description of the Christian life practically shouted in the New Testament compared with the actual life of most Christians, it's . . . embarrassing. Paul sounds like a madman, and we look a little foolish, like children who've been held back a grade. Why is it that nearly every good thing, from taking the annual family vacation to planning a wedding to cultivation a relationship, takes so much work?

It's almost as if there is something set against us.
John Eldredge - Waking the Dead

Haven't you been there? You're standing like Indiana Jones on the brink of the precipice of faith with your foot in the air to take that step. Suddenly you find yourself desperately fighting to . . .

. . . Keep the car running.
. . . Keep the power on.
. . . Keep your place of residence.
. . . Keep your job.

. . . Put your own story here.

So we do not lose heart. Though our outer self is wasting away, our inner self is being renewed day by day. For this light momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison, as we look not to the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen. For the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal.
Paul - 2 Corinthians 4.16-18