Burdens

Verse of the Week:

Matthew 11:28-30
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. 

Burdens

In the movie, Lord of the Rings, Frodo Baggins is chosen as the ring bearer; destined to take the evil ring of power and destroy it in the mountain of fire. As he carries the ring and embarks on his journey to the mountain, the ring grows heavier and harder to carry.  The ring becomes a immense burden the longer he carries it. In the end, the ring takes hold of him so much that when his travel companion and loyal friend, Sam asks him if he remembers his wonderful home,  Frodo replies:

 No, Sam. I can't recall the taste of food... nor the sound of water... nor the touch of grass. I'm... naked in the dark, with nothing, no veil... between me... and the wheel of fire! I can see him... with my waking eyes! 

The ring became so heavy and burdensome that it consumed Frodo to the point that he was surrounded by darkness with no memories of the good things in life.

Often times people tend to focus so much on their problems, that it grows to be a burden.  At first the burden may seem light, but the more they carry it on their own, the heavier it becomes. Eventually the burden takes over their lives, and they are unable to see past it and focus on the good things in life.  They cannot see any way out.  The harder they try to fix their burden, the worse it becomes, and eventually they are hopeless because they cannot get rid of it or fix it.  They begin to despair and wonder why life is even worth living.  And some eventually give up...

Burdens often enslaves us and master us.    In 2 Peter 2:19b, it talks about how we are slaves to whatever masters us. 

For a man is a slave to whatever has mastered him.

Whatever you are obsessed with in this life is usually what has you enslaved.  The more you focus on your burden, the more it enslaves you.  

It is human nature to look at a problem and try to fix it. If the washer breaks down, we call someone up to fix it.  If your son falls and scraps his knee, you wash the wound and put a band aid on it. If the car needs the oil changed, you change it.  If the dishes need to be washed, you wash them.  

However, have you noticed that if some of these things do not get fixed immediately, it becomes a burden?  Suppose your washer breaks down, and you call someone to fix it, but they cannot fix it; the burden becomes greater.   The problem grows bigger, and you begin to ask yourself, "How can we afford to buy a new washer? How am I going to get laundry done? My husband needs a clean shirt for his work party tonight and my son is running out of pants to wear!"  You start to panic and the burden gets heavier and heavier to the point that you are frustrated. 

We are usually fine and breeze our way through life when things go great. As long as we are able to solve and fix things, life seems easy, but I have learned something about the origin of burdens.  Burdens come about when you try to fix things and cannot.  The harder you try to fix it the worse it gets and the heavier the burden.  Burdens come about when you have the illusion that you are in control.

Jesus has something to say about burdens....

 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. (Matthew 11:28-30)

For those of you who are not aware what a yoke is, it is a wooden cross piece that is attached to an animal that helps them to pull a heavy load in a wagon or cart.  Jesus is saying that the yoke He has is easy to pull and light.  He is saying that we can find rest in Him.

When a person cannot fix a burden something must happen to lighten that burden, it is called SURRENDER.

When a person realizes that they cannot fix something, they realize that if they keep carrying the burden, it will grow heavier, so they surrender that burden to someone else, Jesus.  He is in control of the situation, and nothing ever happens that is out of His hands.  All things are under Jesus' feet (1 Corinthians 15:27, Ephesians 1:22, Hebrews 2:8).

Here is the problem, whenever, we give our burdens to Jesus, we expect Him to FIX it.  Here is the reality: sometimes He does not fix it.  You see, God doesn't promise to take our problems away, but He promises to be with us as we go through them.  Jesus clearly says, 

I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.  (John 16:33)  

Jesus didn't say that we would not have troubles, but he did say to take heart, because he has overcome the world.  He is still sovereign. 

So when a person sees a situation that ends in hopelessness and grief, and it nearly rips a person's heart to shreds, God is still sovereign.

So how does God lighten the burden? Remember how we are slaves to whatever masters us? It is all about the focus; the more we focus on the problem, the heavier the burden, but the more that we turn our eyes to Jesus and see the problem through His eyes, the lighter the burden! Your worry is replaced with trust.  Your negativity is replaced with shimmer of light.  You realize that you are not alone and that someone is there with you through it all.  If you don't understand why something happened, you are ok, because you know that someone else does understand.

If I am going to be mastered by something, then let it be Jesus!  Let him consume my thoughts, may His own thoughts reflect my own.

I have seen what happens to a person when Jesus is not there.  They have no hope. Day by day they try to fix their burdens never succeeding. Day by day they see negativity in this world that eventually consumes their thoughts.  When they finally have had enough of it all, they despair because there is no one to turn to.

Someone once told me that Christians use God as an illusion to bring them comfort when they have problems.  Even if He is an illusion, I much rather have hope in an illusion than despair in nothing.

I am reminded of a song that I sung as a little girl:

I will cast all my cares upon you.
    I lay all of my burdens down at your feet,
And anytime I don't know what to do
   I will cast all my cares upon you.

Thank you, Jesus, that we can lay our burdens down at your feet!  To you be all the glory, Amen!