Famous Sayings - Why Always Take The Hard Road?

"Not everything that is more difficult is more meritorious."

- Saint Thomas Aquinas

A quick comment:

I think the book “Games People Play” may have touched on this. We can, without being aware of it, make ourselves fall into a trap called total self denial and self punishment whereby we deprive ourselves continually the good things or the easy and smart way to dPublish Posto something because of our pride in hardship.

We think that if we work harder and deny ourselves to the extreme and otherwise punish ourselves, that some divine law will intervene and say “you deserve a million dollars for all of your hard physical labor and for your denial of everything good” or “here’s your spiritual reward”.

Yet the truth is, self-inflicted difficulty and hardship is foolish if there is an easier choice that results in the same. This is because we have denied through selfish pride the very gift and privilege that God himself bestowed…less difficulty and less hardship so as to lift a burden for us. Remember the story of Cain and Abel. Now you understand why obedience is better than sacrifice.

What to do with this famous saying

The next time you seek to take the harder route, be sure it is for the right reason, not just out of pride or thought that it may provide more merit, particularly if we have the easier route as a legitimate and honorable choice. If there’s an easier and smarter way to do something, then don’t feel guilty, go with it!

Try it as long as the method is just and doesn’t do ill to another. Sometimes I wonder if God sometimes scratches his head at why we want to make things more difficult that we really ought to or than he meant it to be (being facetious)...but you get my point...

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