Is truth difficult?  Indeed, it is.  During a lunch conversation I had yesterday with my Muslim friend, we talked about truth.  He insisted that the Qur'an is the final truth; I said that Jesus is "the way, the truth, and the life" (John 14:6).  Although we did not agree on who Jesus was, we agreed that much of what he said was difficult to understand--because, we both said, it was true (except, from my friend's standpoint, Jesus' assertion that he was the son of God).
     Whether we are talking about the truth of a statement we make, advice we get from a friend, criticism of our work behavior, or the dimensions of metaphysics, the truth is often hard to take.  And why not?  If truth was easy, we would all know it.  But most of us spend our entire lives looking for it.  We struggle, we wrestle, we wonder.  Moreover, even if we believe we have found the truth, we still have problems with it.  We are creatures of relativity, undoubtedly rational, but highly subjective, too.  We have trouble imaging in black and white.
     That's why the Qur'an is difficult for many to believe, and that is why many find Jesus too much to accept.  They both challenge our ideas of what we can know.  They both challenge our notion of what can be true.  Most of all, they confront us with a choice we cannot ignore.
     If we want an easy life, we do not want truth.  If we want life, however, we want truth more than anything else in the world.
     Truth is that difficult.