Not long ago someone in our family bought a property.  The reasonably modern home was on a life-style block a little way out of town.  The pre-purchase inspections panned out well except for some issues around the septic treatment system.  The seller had assured the buyer that the septic system had been approved by the relevant local government authorities.  Some further checks soon proved otherwise and an agreement was made that the purchase would go ahead but that $10k of the purchase price would be withheld until the septic system was approved.  As often happens in such situations things deteriorated and began to get ugly.  My relative confronted the previous owner and said to him: “We can do this the easy way or the hard way!  Your call!”

When I heard that story I couldn’t help but reflect on that call to choose either the easy way or the hard way.  It made me wonder, for example, how many inheritances have been ruined because someone chose to settle the dispute the hard way.  Instead of sitting down together and working out a solution with some give and take on both sides, lawyers got involved.  There are horror stories of disputes that became so bitter and the litigation so drawn out that precious little of the inheritance was left – most of it had ended up in the pockets of their respective legal teams.

There are no doubt many other situations where this holds true.  A business partnership goes bust and both parties decide to do it the hard way.  There’s an unwillingness to sit down together and work out a settlement.  Whatever finances are still part of the partnership will now be spent on legal fees.  Or there’s the couple that divorced and things soon become so bitter that neither party wants to do it the easy way with some humble discussions where there is some give and take on either side.

What particularly struck me though was that it seems to me that there are times when the Lord God in heaven calls us to make the same choice.  He calls to us saying: we can do this the easy way or the hard way!  Your call!

Okay, I can imagine some of you wanting to ask me, “Good grief, Westy, isn’t that trivialising God’s relationship with us human beings?”  Am I suggesting that a relationship with God can become a little like a dispute over a septic system?  Well, yes, in a way!

Let me explain by giving you an example.  There’s a Bible book called The Book of Judges.  It tells the story of Israel’s early years in the land of Canaan after Joshua and his team of leaders had passed from the scene.  We’re told that Israel abandoned God in favour of the pathetic idols of the surrounding nations.  Things went from bad to worse as enemy nations oppressed and impoverished Israel.  In their distress they cried out to the Lord God and he sent them a deliverer who rescued them from their enemies so that the land had peace for thirty or forty years.  But then the cycle repeats itself.  God is abandoned, the nation suffers terrible times, they call on God, He sends a saviour to restore peace... until the cycle is repeated yet once more.  Am I far off the mark in suggesting that in the book of Judges God is saying to Israel: We can do this the easy way or the hard way, your call!?  More correctly the Book of Judges shows us a people who – when it comes to God – decided to do it the hard way.

British author C.S. Lewis seemed to agree with my way of thinking about this.  He once said that in times of trouble and hardship God turns the volume up because we aren’t listening to him.  The point is that God wants to have fellowship with us human beings – and we’re not really interested because we’ve got so many other things that are always more important than our relationship with God.  But God, being God ultimately calls the shots.  He will have His way with us – you for your part can make it easier or harder.  You can do it the easy way by humbly submitting to Him by trusting in Jesus or you can do it the hard way by trying to avoid Him and ignore Him.

So how do you want to do it: the easy way or the hard way?  Your call!

John Westendorp