Is becoming Orthodox really as hard as people say?

It is very hard to become Orthodox. It's hard to enter into the life of prayer and fasting, the structure, the regiment, all these things, if you don't want your sins to be revealed. If you want to be comfortable, if you want to be saved without actually having to carry your cross, Lord have mercy, this is the worst place to come. Think about that verse where Christ says, "Deny yourself, take up your cross, and follow me."

I remember thinking as a Protestant, what is my cross? Now I'm like, Lord, this is enough. We don't want any more cross. We have enough cross. But it'll probably get bigger as time goes on, because that's inevitably the case. You see it very clearly in the Church. It is a life of bearing the cross. It is the life of struggle.