Our pastor told us that this was Jesus telling us that His path is the one that leads to true happiness. While many people seek happiness for the sake of happiness, those who follow Jesus tend to find happiness and be more content with their lives. As hard as it might be to fight our own sinful natures, doing so makes our lives easier and happier in the long run.
I reflected on this in light of my work on my dissertation. This week, I put in more than 40 hours of screen and book time trying to learn more about qualitative analysis and to use that information to make revisions to my proposal. I found myself continually distracted. It was "easier" to read up on the news, or make comments on social media, or to watch the construction going on in my yard than it was to focus my mind and continue work on this massive undertaking. Yet those "easy" distractions made my life more difficult. The weight of this project affects me mentally and financially the longer it takes to get done. My yoke would be easier and my burden lighter if I could keep myself focused on what seems to be the more difficult task.
This is true in many aspects of our lives. So often, we look for shortcuts to success, love, or respect that end up causing us more trouble down the road. So often, we are rewarded when make honest efforts to improve ourselves and the world around us. Christ has given us tasks that appear hard, but that actually lift weights off our shoulders and shackles from our bodies.