It's hard to be a sinner.

There is a general assumption prevalent in the world that it is extremely difficult to be a Christian. While it is true that many don't completely disqualify themselves as "Christians," they do modify their claims: ordinary Christians they call themselves. They respect the church, worship fairly regularly, try to live decently. But they give themselves somewhat generous margins to allow for the temptations and pressures put upon them by the world. To really be on the way of faith, take with absolute seriousness all that the Bible says - well. that requires a predisposition to saintliness, extraordinary willpower and an unspecified number of nameless austerities that they are quite sure they cannot manage.

But this is as from from the truth as the east is from the west. The easiest thing in the world is to be a Christian. What is hard is to be a sinner. Being a Christian is what we were created for. The life of faith has the support of an entire creation and the resources of a magnificent redemption. The structure of this world was created by God so that we can live in it easily and happily as his children. The history we walk in has repeatedly been entered by God, most notably in Jesus Christ, first to show us and then to help us live full of faith and exuberant with purpose. In the course of Christian discipleship we discover that without Christ we are doing it the hard way and that with Christ we are doing it the easy way. It is not Christians who have it hard, but non-Christians.

These paragraphs and the Chesterton quote from chapter 10 of A Long Obedience In the Same Direction by Eugene Peterson are teasers to draw you into the chapter and the rest of the book.