Short bursts of faithfulness are not hard. Stringing them together is hard. Sustaining them for long periods of time is incredibly hard. The difficulty comes from the challenge of being faithful. But a key part of the difficulty is that Satan never gives us a free ride. He's always in there trying to mess things up, making them harder, and raising our frustrations. Faithfulness, however, is about a long haul that maintains its target and delivers its payload on time. Jesus wants us to know that it will be easy for us to lose that first flush of joy and sink into mediocrity—or worse—if we do not seriously pursue Jesus through his life and teachings.