If you've ever painted a house you know it's true: some tasks are easier than others.

Holly and I found this out after Herb's death. We, along with Linda, Daniel, Holly's brother, and my brother, Aron, took on the project of painting Linda's house. Some parts of the house were broad, smooth and easy to reach. Those parts were a piece of cake. Other parts gave us a lot of trouble. 

More than once we had to extend a ladder to its limit, balance it atop a slanted piece of metal (to give it a level base, since we were working on a hill) and have someone steady the ladder. Then one brave soul would have to climb the ladder, gripping a paint can in one hand and the ladder with the other -- just to reach those out-of-the way areas.

It would have been nice if we had been able to put in a few hours a day, slapping on some paint in the easy areas and then be done with it. We could have spent our afternoons sipping sweet tea, congratulating each other on what a great job we had done. We could have done that, but if we never got around to doing the hard parts, we would have been left with an unfinished house. People would look at the unpainted patches near the top beam and say, "What on earth happened there?" 

The same thing is true with the calling that God has put on each of our lives. Some of the things God calls us to do are easy. Maybe we like teaching a small group at church or spending time reading our Bible. Other things are hard for us -- like forgiving that person who hurt us so many years ago. But we've got to do the hard thing if we want to get the job done and complete what God has called us to do. 

In Acts chapters 20-21, the apostle Paul was faced with having to do the hard thing. After years of successful church planting abroad, he felt called by God to return to Jerusalem: "And now, compelled by the Spirit, I am going to Jerusalem, not knowing what will happen to me there. I only know that in every city the Holy Spirit warns me that prisons and hardships are facing me" (Acts 20:22-23).

Why was going to Jerusalem a hard thing for Paul? For one thing, he was coming back to his home turf as a traitor. Although Paul wasn't born in Jerusalem, he was brought up there under the training of one of the leading Jewish teachers, Gamaliel (Acts 22:3). Paul zealously persecuted followers of Christ and even put them in prison until he met Jesus on the Damascus Road and was converted. Since that time, he started preaching for the Messiah who he had formerly preached against. To the crowd in Jerusalem, it seemed like he had betrayed his own.

It was also hard for Paul to go to Jerusalem because he knew that trouble was ahead. As he got closer to Jerusalem, his own Christian brothers and sisters in the city of Tyre urged him not to go through with his plans (Acts 21:4). Moreover, when Paul got to the city of Caesarea, a prophet named Agabus warned Paul by the Holy Spirit that the Jews in Jerusalem would bind him and hand him over to the Gentiles if he went to there (Acts 21:11).  Everyone knew that going to Jerusalem was a hard way to go. 

But Paul had counted the cost of doing the hard thing to be obedient to God: "I am ready not only to be bound, but also to die in Jerusalem for the name of the Lord Jesus" (Acts 21:13).

After Paul had counted the cost, what made him willing to pay it? He was willing to pay the price so he could complete the calling of God on his life: "I consider my life worth nothing to me, if only I may finish the race and complete the task the Lord Jesus has given me -- the task of testifying to the gospel of God's grace" (Acts 20:24). Paul knew that the Spirit was compelling him to go to Jerusalem, and so he went. 

Paul was in the business of painting God's house, and he didn't want to leave any patches undone.

We should be of the same mindset. We need to do that hard thing that God has called us to do. 

You might need to finally write that letter. You might need to tell your boss you won't work on that particular project. You might need to broach that topic with your uncle. Whatever the specific thing is in our own lives, we all need to count the cost in being obedient to God, and then pay it. Completing your calling in Christ is worth more than the cost of not doing the hard thing.

The good news for Paul is that he did the hard thing by going to Jerusalem. Surely it wasn't easy for him, but he found that his obedience opened up a new, far-reaching opportunity for ministry. Paul had preached to his own and was sitting in jail. He was paying the price. At just that point, God showed up: "The Lord stood near Paul and said, 'Take courage! As you have testified about me in Jerusalem, so you must also testify in Rome" (Acts 23:11). Paul's complete obedience to go to Jerusalem ironically opened up a greater door for ministry, as he was then taken to Rome -- the center of the first-century world.

Doing the hard thing is better than leaving God's business undone. 

"And who knows but that you have come to royal position for such a time as this?" -- Esther 4:14