As much at Staples has tried to get us to believe that there's is, in fact, an easy button, the truth is that there isn't.  However, there is an easier way to do things than sometimes we choose to do them.  That was the case with the Israelites.  If only they had submitted to the Lord and done as He asked, life would have been much easier for them.  Submitting to God doesn't guarantee that life will be easy, so please don't misunderstand me here.  However, when we submit to Him, we have the promise that He isn't going to leave us and that He'll bring us through whatever we're facing.  Choosing our own way may even force God to go to drastic measures to get our attention.  The Lord tried, on many occasions, to get the attention of Israel.  His attempts were not successful, so Isaiah tells us that the Lord would speak to His people by those of "strange lips" and a "foreign tongue."  He sent them to captivity to another land so they might learn the lessons He had to teach them.  God goes to great lengths to get the attention of His people, and sometimes He will do whatever it takes to get their attention.  I hope in my own life I will seek God's way from the beginning.