I plan on periodically sharing excerpts from the writings of Sǿren Kierkegaard, one of my favorite Christian authors. Whether or not you 
agree with him, he is always worth reading (very slowly) and pondering (usually, for a long time).
Here is our Kierkegaard reading for today:
“Hardship is the road [for the Christian life]. Far be from us this hypocritical talk that life is so varied that some are walking along the same road without hardships, others in hardships…Doubt about the task [of discipleship] always has its stronghold in the idea that there could be other roads…but since hardship is the road, the hardship cannot be removed without removing the road, and there cannot be other roads, but only wrong roads.”
In other words, living for Jesus by definition brings difficulty and suffering. If following Jesus has never made my life more complicated, more difficult, then I am probably not really following Jesus. I am simply taking a walk.
The Danish Christian thinker, Sǿren Kierkegaard (1813-1855), has been an important spiritual friend of mine for many years. His writings have provided me with comfort, encouragement, challenge and insight, always mixed with spiritual and intellectual stimulation.
I have even written a book – Encountering Jesus, Encountering Scripture – explaining how Kierkegaard’s “way of knowing” through personal experience is, in fact, the New Testament’s own account of acquiring faith through spiritual experience.
Engaging Kierkegaard has helped me to persevere in following my Lord. Though, as the famous Dane repeatedly confessed, I continue in the process of following Jesus, dependent entirely on his grace. I still have a long way to go in being conformed to the image of our Savior.
Kierkegaard often went so far as to say that he was in the process of becoming a Christian. He had not yet arrived. And, no. He did NOT say this because he believed in earning his way into God’s kingdom by relying on works righteousness.
Kierkegaard talked this way because 19th century Denmark was a nation in the throes of “Christendom.” That is, the vast majority of its citizens attended the Lutheran state church, and almost everyone considered themselves to be Christian simply because they were Danish. Denmark was, after all, a “Christian nation.”
Sound familiar?
Following his conversion out of Christendom and into genuine repentance and trust in Jesus Christ, Kierkegaard became a resident missionary to his own people. He well understood that the Jesus we encounter in the New Testament is highly offensive to anyone who takes him seriously. After all, Jesus makes the most outrageous demands of his followers.
When the gospel of Jesus Christ is explained truthfully, it is highly offensive and inconvenient. Jesus repells as well he as attracts. He offers the average listener many more reasons to say, No, than to say, Yes.
So, as a missionary to Christian Denmark, Kierkegaard became convinced that he must make Christianity difficult. For only by hearing the highly offensive challenge embedded in the Lordship of Jesus Christ does anyone hear the truth of the gospel.
Making Christianity “difficult,” then, was simply a matter of talking about Jesus faithfully. Something that was in short supply in 19th century Denmark, especially among pastors and theologians working for the state church.
But, if we stop to think about it, Kierkegaard’s Denmark was not all that different from America today.
Even though the United States has never embraced an established, state church, far too many Americans are blinded by a similar idolatry – belief in a Christian nation where patriotism eclipses allegiance to the resurrected Jesus.
Yes. Our country desperately needs to hear a much more difficult brand of Christianity.
Not hard to understand, I think. I liked him when I first of him. Did not know until now enough
to realize he was/is a believer.
I think that Kierkegaard is one of THE most important Christian thinkers/writers of the modern period. And I will take him over Augustine any day! ha!