Following Jesus rarely made anyone’s life easier in the Bible. It made it meaningful.

Nobody is promising that this makes things easier, and anyone saying otherwise is selling you something. The pattern runs the other way: people were asked for more, not less, and most of them ended up in harder positions than they started in. What they got instead was a reason that held up. Easier and meaningful are two different offers, and you only get to choose one of them.

Ask which you are actually after this week. If it is comfort, be honest about that. If it is meaning, expect the cost and stop reading difficulty as a sign you took a wrong turn.