Post by Pastor Tim Dillmuth – Does life get easier when you follow Christ?  I like how John Piper (and Paul the Apostle) answered that question.  John Piper said,

The answer seems to be that the Christian life for Paul was not the so-called good life of prosperity and ease.   Instead it was a life of freely chosen suffering beyond anything we ordinarily experience.   Paul’s belief in God, and his confidence in resurrection, and his hope in eternal fellowship with Christ did not produce a life of comfort and ease that would have been satisfying even without resurrection.  No, what his hope produced was a life of chosen suffering.  Yes, he knew joy unspeakable.  But it was a “rejoicing in hope” (Romans 12:12).  And that hope freed him to embrace sufferings that he never would have chosen apart from the hope of his own resurrection and the resurrection of those…