I want a hard life.

I haven't blogged in at least a month, but something just came to me today.  A whole ton of stuff has happened since I last wrote, and I won't delve into the details, but I've had to work really hard to be happy.  And I realized something.

Life is hard.
Homework is hard; waking up is hard; love is hard; friendships are hard; smiling for real is hard; work is hard; having a perfect body is hard; finances are hard; injury is hard
Everyday life is hard, but
Struggles are even harder; sin is even harder; grief is even harder.
But that's what makes life worth it.
Imagine if life was easy.
We'd never feel
The relief of good grades
See the sunshine in the early morning
Those times when our love is just right and perfect
When the light shines through our imperfections
Smiles of friends
When frowns work their way into smiles
When hard work becomes a masterpiece
Sweat and aching muscles pushing through to adrenaline
And strength
Money buying food for someone that rarely has it
Broken and torn flesh becoming new as it heals
Everyday life can be true, magical, delicious joy.
Even worse,
We'd never see the push through the struggles
Only leaning on God and seeing His vast love
Christ's triumph over sin
Laughter when tears pour out in heartbreak
So life has to be hard
For us to know how wonderful it is to
Live.

And that's why we should be thankful for the hard parts of life, even more than the easy parts.  That's why I want to teach math.  Because when you want to cry because the numbers are letters and don't make any sense,  you can see how complex it all is and how amazing God has to be to create a system so perfect yet so complicated to describe the world.   Delight in how hard something is to get through because the harder it is, the more of an impact it can have.  Willingly choose to do something hard for you.  Grow.  Live.  Appreciate.  If everything was easy, life would be boring.