The Lord said his yoke is easy and his burden is light:
28 Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.
29 Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls.
30 For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light. (Matthew 11)
The more aware you are of how things really are, the less likely you are to describe anything about reality as easy or light.
The key to understanding the apparent contradiction between what the Lord promised and what experience suggests is to understand that the peace the Lord offers is not what we think of when we hear “peace.”
The Lord said: “Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you: not as the world giveth, give I unto you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid.” (John 14:27)
The type of so-called peace offered by the world is extrinsic. It is found in things that come from without; what the scriptures call carnal security: the apparent absence of negative circumstances. Note the key elements of this definition: apparent absence is not the same as actual absence. So many of the things that have power to shake us from our peace are everpresent in this world. From one moment to the next, the most unlikely disaster can strike. This is in addition to the many less-than-disaster events that can still be quite disastrous.
The so-called peace offered by the world is not the real thing. It is a precursor, an invitation to seek and find the real thing.
While worldly peace is fleeting, fragile, and almost totally outside of your control, God’s peace is impenetrable, inalterable, and completely within your control.
We can be at peace the same way the earth is at peace in spite of the fact that it is constantly orbiting the sun, and despite the fact that the sun and all its planets are barreling through space. The sun’s heliosphere creates a bubble that pushes back the intergalactic radiation, which is like a fire. It creates ordered, mostly repetitive paths for the planets to traverse. It reduces the seemingly limitless chaos of space into an ordered system.
In a similar way, the Lord provides us with controlled exposure to the chaos of life. He has overcome all things. As we turn to him, we turn away from unfettered exposure to the chaos and into a guided experience whose outcome is for us to do the same.
Baptism is an illustration of the transition from unfettered exposure to chaos into the guided mentorship of Jesus Christ. The baptismal applicant responds to some limited exposure to the chaos possible in this world by aligning themselves with what little they know about God. As part of this, they seek a representative of Jesus Christ to receive the ordinance of baptism. The person who represents Jesus Christ immerses the applicant completely in the waters of chaos. While held in the protective embrace of the representative, the applicant is made aware of a limitless amount of chaos, but only for the moment it takes to be completely immersed in the water. After being pulled up from the water, the person is qualified to receive the Holy Ghost as long as they completely submit to Jesus Christ as their master. The Holy Ghost guides the baptized person through ever-increasing quantities of chaos, in an intentional, protected, personalized tour of the chaos that occurs as fast and for as long as the person is willing to learn.
The Lord is completely aware of the chaos we have only tasted. He dwells in this chaos, protected only by the principles he chooses to live by. The peace he has is available to us: first through trusting in his ability to filter our experiences down to only what benefits us so long as we obey and seek him fully, and second through tutoring us in his character so that we gain the power to overcome all things just as he has. Our access to both of these types of peace comes through our trust in him.