The “Easy Button”

May 21, 2007

By Randy Mantik

We recently attended parent/teacher conferences for our son, Caleb. His grades and performance are excellent and we are so proud of our smart boy and thankful for dedicated teachers! Caleb has been in the advanced math class this year, taking 5th grade math while in the 4th grade. It has been challenging for him but he has done very well and has made a lot of progress.

Caleb’s math teacher uses as many creative things as she can to help learning be fun as well as profitable. One of the things she utilizes is a nifty little gadget called the “Easy Button,” which you’ve probably seen on TV commercials for the “Staples” office store. It is a big, red, electronic button with the word “Easy” written in large letters on the top.

When a student finishes an assignment correctly or needs a little inspiration during note-taking time, he or she gets the privilege of pushing the button. Out comes a cheerful and encouraging voice saying, “That was easy!” The kids love it.

How can anything hard have the potential of eventually seeming easy? It’s when the realization comes it is going to be necessary to ask for help if there’s going to be any hope of conquering the hard thing. In his math class, Caleb has asked for help again and again until the concept finally became clear to him. Getting to push the Easy Button is not only a reward, but also a reminder the difficult mathematical concept finally became easy because he didn’t try to learn it alone. He asked for and received the help freely available to him from his teacher.

Is there an “Easy Button” in our daily life? There is, if we’re willing to lay down our pride, ask for help, and quit trying to make it through life on our own. Jesus gives a sterling example in this passage:

“He called a little child and had him stand among them. And he said: 'I tell you the truth, unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. Therefore, whoever humbles himself like this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven' ” (Matthew 18:2-4, NIV).

Kids are generally pretty willing to ask for help. They learn early on there’s a lot of hard stuff in life to learn and they seem to have an innate sense they can’t do it on their own. So in simple faith they trust and ask and learn and, sure enough, the time comes when the hard thing becomes easy!

What a relief and joy it is to live in childlike simplicity, choosing to live every day as a learner! I served under such a man a number of years ago. He was in his mid-60s, but you’d think he was much younger because he lived life with such zestful energy.

I noticed his purposeful willingness to keep learning. He had a doctorate, but hardly ever mentioned it. He constantly took notes when he heard any teaching, even when he sat through some of the early sermons of this very wet-behind-the-ears preacher! What incredible humility! Whenever anyone mentioned a book he hadn’t read, he would write down the title and make every effort to get it. He was always willing to ask for help. He had the “Easy Button” concept down pat and the quality of his life proved it!

An old adage states that, “When the student is ready, the teacher will be revealed.” Typically, we are surrounded by people who can help us if we would just humble ourselves and ask, listen and learn. That takes humility, like my friend had in such great measure. Possessing humility is another critical element in our ability to hit the “Easy Button.”

Sometimes we might have to rebuild some relational bridges to get to the help we need. Take it from me — someone who has had to learn the hard way too many times because I was unwilling to ask for help. I’ve also seen my fair share of people who have walked away without receiving the help they so desperately needed because they weren’t willing to listen and learn.

It all comes down to these verses of Scripture I love. They answer my questions and doubts about whether I really do have all that I need and whether help will be there when I ask:

“His divine power has given us everything we need for life and godliness through our knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and goodness. Through these he has given us his very great and precious promises, so that through them you may participate in the divine nature and escape the corruption in the world caused by evil desires” (2 Peter 1:3,4).

Doesn’t life become a lot easier when we realize everything we need has been provided for? Living in that sense of grateful love for God garners for us more peace than we ever thought imaginable. I can personally attest to that.

I’ve always been the type of person who may seem to be calm, cool and collected on the outside; yet on the inside, I can be full of insecurity and pain. God has taught me to treasure the peace that comes when I hit the “Easy Button.” As I ask for and receive His help, with God all things truly are possible.

Randy Mantik is senior pastor of Crossroads Church of the Assemblies of God in Pembine, Wis.