Making Christianity Burdensome?

Sometimes when I listen to preachers, I start to feel like the life which is being presented to me is

This doesn't happen all the time, by the way, but it does occur once in a while.

It happened today. I heard a portion of a sermon on the radio this morning which actually made me feel weary. I thought, "Oh brother, here we go!" I almost pulled to the side of the road to take a nap. (Perhaps this is one of the results of having access to too much information.)

Then this thought occurred to me, "Don't be too quick to exempt yourself, Dan, you've probably done this in your teaching, too!" I apologize for my errors in this regard.

Living the life to which God has called us is not without challenges. Jesus never promised, "Follow me and life will be a cakewalk."

(In fact I just double-checked and the phrase "cake walk" does not even appear in the New Testament. Crazy, huh?)

However, Jesus does not intend for us to carry unnecessary burdens and it is not His desire to make life miserable and oppressive. In fact, Jesus gives life He does not rob us of it.

"Come to me all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light." Jesus, Matthew 11:28-30

intentionally designed to be unpleasant and burdensome. Or it feels like no matter what I'm doing to try to serve God they are pointing out how there's some sense in which I'm doing it wrong.