When Jesus said, "My yoke is easy," he was telling it like it is. This caring, this moral commitment, this faith and obedience we have been talking about are really not a burden upon the life of the individual. All these dimensions of life, when inspired by the Holy Spirit, are generators of strength and purpose. In this way personal life finds its wholeness and completeness, and this is what Jesus meant by saying, "I came that you might have life and have it more abundantly." It is a joyful thing. This is where the meaning is.

Sadly, Oliver Wendell Holmes once admitted that "He had considered becoming a minister ... but that he had abandoned the idea because most ministers acted like undertakers." I think that Holmes knew the wrong ministers, but there is a point here. Many people have c…