It's HARDER!

The first three letters in "diet" spell "die."
Wasn't it Mark Twain who said something like, "Whenever I feel the urge to exercise, I lie down until I get over it." Whoever it was, it would appear from the increasing girth of American's young and old, that it is a popular practice--only instead of lying down the modern equivalent is to sit down in front of the TV--wide bottoms parked in front of wide screens. First Lady, Michelle Obama, among others, has emphasized that this syndrome is not only true about we oldsters, but is pandemic among the younger set.
I fear that the "Big Easy" is more than a nickname for New Orleans. Our dedication to ease leads to an unpleasant reality--we are headed for a life that is not easy at all.

Our dedication to the path of least resistance, which leads to a result that we resist in non-effective ways, is not limited to our intake and usage of calories. We read less and "surf" more. Social niceties are abandoned because they are too much trouble. Spiritual disciplines like time in the Bible and prayer and regular attendance with an assembly of believers for worship, fellowship, and learning, have given way to spiritual equivalents of diet pills. It is weird. We look at the end of the path we are on and say, "I don't want to go there." Yet we are unwilling to get off the road that inevitably leads to where we don't want to go. We maintain this schizophrenia accompanied by whining choruses of "It's hard!"

Indeed!
The Apostle Paul challenged his younger protege to "discipline yourself for the purpose of Godliness." (1 Timothy 4:7) Hebrews 12:11 puts it in perspective. "All discipline for the moment seems not to be joyful, but sorrowful; yet to those who have been trained by it, afterwards it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness." (Hebrews 12:11) I know it is a jock-cliche, but it is true: "No pain, no gain!" Let me add to it: "No gain, worse pain." It is hard to live right. Eventually, though, it is harder not to.

It's STTA.