If I had a dime for every time I heard someone undermine the passion of someone who has just started following Jesus with statements like, "isn't it great when you're new to following Jesus..." I'd have a lot of foreign currency. Every time I hear it I feel as though someone is jabbing a knife between my ribs and turning it. My understanding of the life of a follower is it gets better with time - that we should expect that as our relationship deepens and we have more opportunities to see the Kingdom break through that our excitement and expectancy would increase.

Every time I hear it I'm reminded of the parable of the sower in Luke 8:4-8 and Jesus' explaination (here) that the different types of ground represent the responses of different people to the message of the Kingdom. In this particular situation I'm reminded of the thorny ground, which represents "those who hear and accept the message, but all too quickly the message is crowded out by the cares and riches and pleasures of this life. And so they never grow into maturity." That parable wasn't told for those who were cynics, for those who would never believe, but for those who did believe. It serves as a warning to us all - will we let the distractions that are thrown across our path, the troubles of this life, define us and our level of hope, or will we let them act as opportunities for growth (eg)?