Our culture is not always one that epitomizes ease. I will grant you that there are plenty of options on grocery shelves for people who want dinner without prep, and GPS has certainly made directions stress free. Dialing your phone it a misnomer, and is as effortless as speaking two words. 

But there are other areas of society that cater to difficulty. Otherwise there would be no rock climbing, diamond slopes, marathons, MENSA conferences, or Wordle. People even click on the mode for more challenging. In my own hobby of quilting, I jump over the simplest patterns in order to play with pieces that make me engage my brain. 

Yet I do not do things the hard way simply for that reason. I am grateful for those quilters who can offer suggestions that get good results. A few years back I still crawled on the floor to sandwich a quilt with masking tape and safety pins. I turned up the music but it was a struggle. Then a friend mentioned trying the dining room table. Another shared her success with spray basting, and the transformation was complete when John brought his clamps up from the basement. Now I can layer the backing, batting and top in twenty minutes without breaking a sweat. 

We are a funny bunch, though. Sometimes an offer that might make a process simpler is met with scorn. If we cling to the familiar it may edge out any new fangled ideas that are untested. 

I notice God's willingness to work with me. Sometimes he plops a better option in my path, and for unpredictable reasons I pick it up and try it out. Other days I step over it, like the old man in a fable I once heard. God knew that a man was poor and suffering, and longed to bless him. But when He dropped a bag of gold in the man's path he went around it, thinking it was a nuisance.  

How many times does God have to disguise gifts as easier, or harder, new, or familiar just to entice me to accept?