Buddhist Catholic Contemplative Evangelical General Christian Hindu Jewish Latter-day Saint Muslim New Visions Progressive Christian

Beliefs

Topics

Columnists

Resource Library

Research Tools

Video

Podcasts

Thought Readers

Faith In Media Tracker

Newsletters

Ad-Free & Subscriber Log-In Subscription Support

Follow Patheos

After the Ecstasy, the Laundry...

Home
Catholic
Have a cuppa: Encouragement

Have a cuppa: Encouragement

Last updated on: January 8, 2014 at 6:50 pm by Cynthia Schrage

Have a cuppa: Encouragement 2014-01-08T18:50:46-04:00 Cynthia Schrage

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

“What encouraging words do you want the people you care about to hear as they begin a new year?”

That was the prompt that Holley Gerth gave on January 1 to begin her new series: Coffee for Your Heart. (You can read about it by clicking on the illustration at left, and read more entries, or link up yourself here.)

If there’s one thing I learned in the past year (and something I should’ve learned a long time ago, that’s for sure), it’s that life is full of hard things. It’s not easy. But that doesn’t mean give up.

I know, it’s very tempting.

We see videos on YouTube, we watch movies, we see television shows, maybe even a person demonstrating something at our local library. They all have one thing in common: they make it look easy. Effortless. Piece of cake.

But we all know it’s not really like that. So why do we give up? Because it’s haaaaard…

I know I got into this rut (and it was years in the making, believe you me) where I got to the point where if I couldn’t figure something out in about fifteen minutes of honest effort, I believed I wasn’t meant to do it. I mean, obviously, God didn’t give me a special talent for intuitively mastering Gimp, or learning HTML (let alone cascading style sheets), so, clearly, these things must not be something I need to master.

And it’s true, I don’t really need to master Gimp or cascading style sheets to make my life meaningful. But there were a lot of other things that this “it’s too hard” attitude trickled into. Learning how to budget my money. Returning to playing the piano. Understanding the design theory behind becoming a better photographer. Singing in a church choir. I was no longer learning almost anything, because…haaaaard. I wasn’t even participating in a great many things I already knew how to do (at least a little) because…hard.

My life got dull, tedious, and so very sad.

Don’t let that happen to you.

Allison Vesterfelt, in her book, Packing Light, says:

“I think sometimes when things get hard, too many of us assume we’re moving in the wrong direction. … Like if we’re doing life right, it’s supposed to be easy.”

When I read this book last summer, this hit me like a ton of bricks. I distinctly remember looking up from the page and staring for a long time out the window in stupefaction. When had I stopped understanding this? Me, a pianist? A person who had spent weeks learning a single piece of classical music. What was I thinking?

It might be hard. But it will be worth it.

Yes. Yes it will.

And, oh, let me tell you. You will feel the most sublime sense of satisfaction when you accomplish that hard thing.

Relish that. Dance around to that music. Roll around in that sensation. Feel that good feeling of accomplishment. Because that feeling of satisfaction will carry you through the next hard thing. And the next.

Oh, things will probably never get easy. Really worthwhile things are never easy.

But they are worth it.

[GET] Master GIMP Tutorials. Master GIMP Tutorials Review. (westwso.wordpress.com)
Cascading Style Sheet (CSS) Selectors. (ryansousa93.wordpress.com)
Want to Learn How to Code? (smashingboxes.com)

Coffee for Your Heart

Previous Post

January 6, 2014

Bold, Frankincense, and Myrrh

Next Post

January 10, 2014 Five Minute Friday: See

Browse Our Archives

Select a Category A-to-Z Challenge About Me Bible Blogging Books Catholicism Clean Eating Coffee for Your Heart Crafts Culture Dance Depression Faith Fiction Five Favorite Things Five Minute Friday Food Gardening God-Sized Dream Health Home Care & Food Hope Humor Just Write Life Choices Love and Romance Loved Ones Manic Depression Memoir Mental Health Movies Music Nature One Word Photos Poetry Prayers Reviews Same Old Same Old Spirituality and Theology Style Travel Uncategorized Women's Interest Writing

Select a Month April 2017 January 2017 December 2016 August 2016 July 2016 June 2016 May 2016 April 2016 March 2016 February 2016 December 2015 October 2015 September 2015 August 2015 July 2015 June 2015 May 2015 April 2015 February 2015 January 2015 October 2014 September 2014 August 2014 June 2014 May 2014 April 2014 March 2014 February 2014 January 2014 December 2013 November 2013 October 2013 September 2013 August 2013 July 2013 June 2013 May 2013 April 2013 March 2013 February 2013 January 2013 December 2012 May 2012 April 2012 March 2012 January 2012 December 2011 October 2011 September 2011 August 2011 July 2011 June 2011 May 2011 April 2011 March 2011 October 2010 September 2010 May 2010 November 2009 October 2009 September 2009 August 2009 July 2009 June 2009 July 2008

TAKE THE

Religious Wisdom Quiz