⁶⁰ Therefore, when many of his disciples heard this, they said, “This teaching is hard. Who can accept^[a] it?” (John 6:60 CSB)

Life is hard, there are no two ways around that. But does that mean we should give in or give up? No, absolutely not!

If you are living a dedicated life of faith it may be even harder. And if it isn’t you might want to check to see if you are being effective in your spiritual walk. The enemy does not attack someone who is already on their side.

Listen, life is full of good times and great experiences. When I say it is hard, that comes from many years of living through good and bad times. Life just takes a lot of effort and being faithful takes even more. Its not to say that all of it is not worth the effort. It is. Life is an adventure, but you have to live it that way. Otherwise it can just be trudging through another day. We must value the journey.

When we look at today’s scripture, and scripture as a whole, there are a lot of things that it limits us from doing. The teaching is hard. It expects much from us. But everything of value in this life comes with high expectations. So hard does not have to equal bad. It should be consistent with the discipline needed to live it.

Maybe we just need a different outlook on hard. When we approach hard for its value, its experience and its adventure, suddenly hard takes on new meaning.