No Surprises and No Shortcuts

At least once a week I see an advertisement that says something like, "It's easy, on this diet you can loose weight in two days without exercise or diet" or "Change your body without changing your lifestyle." What's the cliche? "If it sounds too good to be true, it is."

A couple of weeks ago I heard an amazing sermon at church. The speaker said, "In the Gospel of Jesus Christ there are no surprises and no shortcuts." As I thought about the truth of that statement, I couldn't help but think that it applies to most areas of life...not just our spirituality.

After my first little guy was born, I had a goal to train for and run a marathon. I thought I'd be able to "save time" in my training with a schedule I found that required a lot less running that what I'd done in the past. Big shock, the marathon kicked my booty. Now I know that there are no shortcuts. Conversely, I've discovered that when I'm well trained and prepared for a race, there are no surprises. Ironically, I think this principle is easy for us to preach to our children but hard...frustrating for us to embrace ourselves. With that, have a wonderful weekend!