Grandview Livestock

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10/10/2026

Why Is Life So Hard?

She’s not sure. There are 3 goats in a pen, and I am asking Sally to go between them and the fence to bring them off the fence and to me. This is a hard thing to ask of a small young dog. She will have to be careful not to get head-butted into the fence by the goats. She will be a breath away from their horns with no escape route.

I know she is capable of doing what I ask. I have watched her aggressively move in on these goats and handle them in the open area of the pen. I have purposely set up this situation. I let the goats go to the corner of the pen. I positioned myself so that she must come around to my left, as I know that is her strong side. I have “dog-broke” these goats with my older, more confident Border Collie, Autumn. I have set up a situation where she can win and feel confident in herself and also be confident that I will only ask her to do what I know she is capable of. She has learned to trust me.

She knows me and has grown in confidence that she can do what I ask. When she was very small, I asked her to jump into the cab of the pickup truck. It was a hard thing for her, and she didn’t think she could do it. I physically helped her and then encouraged her to jump in on her own. That hard thing became easy for her. She used to be afraid to jump into the box on the back of the 4-wheeler when I asked. It was too hard for her. She was scared and uncomfortable in the box. It was a hard thing for her to stay in when the 4-wheeler was moving. She wanted to jump out. I physically held her in and encouraged her again. With my help and encouragement, learning to trust me she now eagerly awaits me to ask her to get in.

Many times, I ask her to simply lie down and stay. It seems like a hard thing in her eyes to do. She doesn’t understand why. She hesitates but eventually, she trusts me and does so. Even when she doesn’t like it. This reminds her that I am the master and that she is not the one in control.

She will sometimes become so intense on moving the livestock that she won’t listen or obey me or even hear my voice. It is a hard thing for her to override her desire. This happens often, but not as often as it used to.
I set up the hard things I asked her to do. I am in control. I want her to succeed. I want her to gain confidence in me and her ability to do what I ask. All the things I have asked her to do seem hard to her and make her uncomfortable in the beginning.

If I didn’t make her do hard things, she would never do more than what she thinks she can do. She would be so much less than she could be. She would not have confidence in our relationship. She would be of little use to me.

Much of the time, following Christ and doing what he asks is hard. If God loves me, why doesn’t he fix this hard thing I am going through? Why did he allow it to happen in the first place? I thought following Christ was supposed to make my life all strawberries and unicorns. I thought life would get easier.
Everything God commands is hard for me. Repenting is hard. Forgiving is hard. Turning the other cheek is hard. Loving my enemies is hard.

Overcoming sin in my life is hard. Being joyful when life is hard, is hard. I do not need a command to do things that are easy and come naturally. I admit it. Following Christ is hard. Just like Sally, I would like to follow my own desires.

Isaiah tells us in Chapter 41, that God will hold our hand, much like we hold the hand of our children when they are learning to walk, and he will strengthen us.

We all want our children to learn to walk. We hold their hand to steady them and give them confidence as they learn. For a season, we pick them up and carry them when they get tired. As they get bigger, and we get tired, we put them down. Eventually, they get stronger and we no longer have to carry them, they walk on their own.

James tells us to be joyful when life is hard because it makes us stronger. “Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance (James 1:2-17).
My parents wanted life easier for me than it was for them. Their parents wanted that for them also. The generation before that wanted the same. I used to want my children to have life easier than I did. Then I met some people's children who had everything handed to them and whose life was easy. You know the ones. I think God doesn’t want to spend eternity with a bunch of whiny, spoiled Christians who got everything they wanted handed to them.

I will never grow stronger if I always pedal the bike downhill.
What is your perspective now on the hard times that you have, and will go through?

Can you pray this prayer?

Lord, this is hard for me to pray, but I thank you for hard times. Times that you set up and prepared for me. Times that strengthened me and made me more useful to you and others. I know this is a dangerous prayer and if I’m honest I don’t know if I should ask, but continue to prepare me and make me more useful to you, reminding me that you are the Master and I am not the one in control.

03/10/2026

God’s Will for Your Life

My sprayer weaves violently back and forth down the imaginary line that is created through the field by the auto-steer system. I can’t get it to follow a nice, smooth path like it is supposed to. It is overworking itself. First pulling hard to one side then deciding it has gone too far and pulling hard to the other side but overcompensating each time and struggling instead of moving smoothly down the line I point it towards.

I’ve spent parts of several days making adjustments and re-reading the manual, but nothing seems to correct the problem. The machine still wants to weave back and forth instead of following the nice smooth line across the field that is marked out on the screen. This creates a lot of wasted motion not to mention that it is not very comfortable for me, as I am violently jettisoned from one side of the seat to the other.

This is how I used to feel when I was trying to figure out God’s will for my life. I felt like his will was a tightrope I was supposed to walk. If I teetered a little to the right or the left, I would get His second best. There would be a certain situation that I wanted God to tell me about. I would have a decision to make: what job to take, if I should purchase a piece of equipment, or if I should sell my grain or store it for a better price later.

There are thousands of decisions that we wish we knew what the future would bring before we make the decision. We ask the Lord for His counsel or a “sign” or set out a fleece as Gideon did in Judges Chapter 6. We cry out to God, “Just tell me what to do and I’ll do it.” Really, what we are after is “insider trading information”. Information that would result in making a good decision financially, or would benefit us in some other way, is what we really are asking for.

I have spent time in prayer asking God what He wanted me to do or what would be the best decision. I’ve felt like God commanded us to “do His will”, but then keeps it hidden from us or gives us small clues we would have to figure out or just guess at what He wants.

I’ve felt like I was constantly weaving back and forth down this imaginary line that was God's will for me and my future. Worse than that, the line was so vague I couldn’t figure out where it was, let alone stay on the path.
After studying Gods will as it has to do with my decision making, through the following two books, “Decision Making and the Will of God: A Biblical Alternative to the Traditional View”, by Garry Friesen and J. Robin Maxson (Aug 11, 2004), and “Just Do Something: A Liberating Approach to Finding God’s Will”, by Kevin L. DeYoung and Joshua Harris (Mar 21, 2014), I was relieved to understand that God’s will for my life isn’t some tight rope I need to walk or a bull's eye I am trying to hit.

As long as I am not doing anything immoral or contrary to God’s word from the Bible, I am free to choose what I should do based on the wisdom that God gives freely to those who ask.

In James 1:5-7, God tells me to ask for wisdom and then believe I have it so that I’m not constantly weaving back and forth.

What I’ve come to realize is, many of us obsess over things God never mentions in the bible and pay little attention to the things he does tell us to do. We spend most of our time trying to figure out non-ethical decisions. We want God to give us insider trading information so our life will be easy and we are not responsible for the decisions we make. Once we say, “God told me….”, that ends all responsibility on my part, that ends all discussion but that’s not found as a common practice in the Bible.

What is found in the Bible are things Jesus and the Apostles tell us to do that are not in some spiritual code or hidden from us. Things like, do not be greedy and do not worry (Lk. 12), love your enemies and pray for them (Matt. 5:44). “Do not repay anyone evil for evil” (Rom. 12:17). “Love your enemies and do good to those who hate you”(Luke 6:27).

Do you want to know if it is God’s will for you to marry a certain person? If that man or woman is of the opposite s*x (Gen. 2:24, Matt. 19:4-5), never been married before (Lk. 16:18) and you are both believers in Christ, (2Cor. 7:2, 6:14) the door is wide open for you to marry. If you are having problems in your marriage and wonder if God wants you to divorce your spouse, (Matt. 5:32) will tell you what God's will is.

Of course, we are free to choose our own will and follow our own ideas of what is best. We do it all the time.

How would our lives be different if you and I spent more time doing the things that we know the Bible commands us to do and ask for wisdom when confronted by things that the Bible doesn’t specifically address?
If you’re like me, (and I know you are but hate to admit it) do you ignore clear teachings from the bible that I don’t particularly like and dwell on the more hard-to-understand, controversial passages?

Do we spend more time praying for “insider trading information” than actually doing what we know the bible teaches?

Lord, give me such a desire to do your will that I just do it as I understand it and not dwell and waste time on things I don’t and will never understand. Conform me to the image of your Son.

01/10/2026

When the hay is 47 seconds late...