I think a lot of times we want to make the Gospel out to be warm and fuzzy all the time. We like to think that we worship this God who wants life for us to be as easy as possible. One of my favorites is when people take verses in the Bible out of context to make themselves feel better when things are difficult.
On of my favorites is Jeremiah 29:11 which says, "'For I know the plans I have for you,' declares the Lord, 'plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.'" This verse is often used as "proof" that God wants great things for us that don't involve too much suffering. It's funny, though, because this verse was written to a people who died. It wasn't written to the individuals as much as it was to the entire people, which, by the way, is kind of a foreign concept to us with our individualistic, western thinking that sometimes clouds our ability to really see what God is saying because it involves setting aside our individualistic mindsets, but we'll save that for another time.
But the reality is that the Gospel isn't always warm and fuzzy. It's messy. It involves suffering. It always costs something, and sometimes everything. And in our misconceptions of what the Gospel is we've done a lot of people a great injustice because they aren't informed of how difficult a life for Christ really is. They think that having Christ means they will no longer suffer, they will have luxuries, they will be healthy and successful. However, many times the opposite is quite true. Being a disciple of Christ isn't easy.
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