Why True Burdens Don’t Weigh Us Down: Lessons from Skovoroda and Christ

Thank you, God, that you made the world in such a way that what is necessary is not difficult, and what is difficult is not necessary.

The 18-century Ukrainian philosopher Grigory Skovoroda prayed every morning like this:

“Thank you, God, that you made the world in such a way that all simple things are true, and all difficult things are false.”

According to other sources, the prayer sounded like this: “Thank you, God, that you made the world in such a way that what is necessary is not …