Burden

 

Healthy trees. Broken. Snapped clean in half. Tops taken off. Sure, some unhealthy trees were lost in the ice storm in the Willamette Valley, but what struck me was all the healthy ones. So many trees everywhere. Like a real, live hulk came through and had a smashing craze. Feeling for all those growing timber who just lost loads of money and those with orchards seeing years of work lost and substantial work to get it back. Why? Simply because the burden was too much to bear. It started small, they hung on, but then they gave way as a tree can only bend so far, hold so much weight. I heard that 70 telephone poles also just snapped right in half in Salem and the surrounding region. Literally poles engineered and placed to withstand quite a bit. Dashed. Some areas of the valley out of power for upwards of two weeks due to the immense job of repairing lines. 

You read the title, you have an idea where this is going. Burden. As human beings, we take on a lot of burden. Physical, demands, stresses, heartbreak, sorrow, just sheer busyness wearing you down (I’m most guilty there), trauma, unmet expectations, hope deferred. You can add to the list. There comes a point that we break, we bend, we start getting up-rooted, or we somehow figure out how to lighten the load. We can only take on so much. Otherwise, we’ll meet the same demise. I often ponder why it takes me so long to reach the point that I change something. It’s building, it’s weighing me down, it can feel like you can’t go on. 

Not to dismiss it. I’m not talking about that. Pretending won’t bring a solution. No amount of grin and bear it is going to resolve the issue. Perseverance is a good character quality, one I admire, and try to replicate. However, perseverance should ultimately produce hope as an end result. Otherwise, it’s stupidity. The whole “pain means gain” theory can sometimes be lacking some key components. Enter, options. I have a lot of people in my corner. And yet. I usually try to do it alone. The whole Lone Ranger physic. It’s all pretty simple. I don’t know why we think sending a text is going to kill us. I don’t know why we think we’ll be a risk of burdening others when we reach out with vulnerability. A simple, “hey I’ve had a hard week, would you mind if I came over for dinner?” probably would bless instead of burden. I’m still cultivating and growing my friend group, due to moving less than a year ago. When a girl reached out a while back with a needed prayer request I was quite actually almost elated. Wow, we’ve crossed that line! We’re like the real kind of friends that share life and stuff...and then I realized- why hadn’t I done the same? Not to say that we have to be first, but it’s refreshing to open up and be real. I’m working on that, something I thought I was really good at...until it wasn’t comfortable. Needless to say, why wait? Why wait till your world is falling apart and you can’t hold it together when people ask how you’re doing? So, that’s option number one: be real, be vulnerable, don’t be stupid. Macho only gets you so far. 

Next, well, Sunday school answer of: Jesus. This year my word is overflow I’ve really been working on being filled. Because being empty and burdened come pretty close to being the same thing. The same is also true with our openness to Jesus as before. Why wait so long? I have often allowed myself to go so far and be so distraught, scattered, discouraged, empty, that instead of coming to him for my daily bread, it’s gonna take the whole day of kneading, rising, and baking to restore. An, alright, day off, I need to work on my heart situation. I don’t mean that those days can’t be good, but I shouldn’t have to get to that place, it’s different to want that place. See the difference? I know it’s almost too well known, but maybe we just need to reread the ordinary with new eyes- “Blessed be the Lord, who daily bears our burden, The God who is our salvation.” See that ‘daily’ in there again. We don’t have to be breaking, snapping, irreparable before He’s there to make it light. He quite literally could make that not happen. I believe God is a man of His word. And therefore I have to take it at that. He comes in, He is our salvation, He holds our burden. With us. This is written among enemies and death, I don’t know about you, but that’s some big burdens. But He’s willing to make our heart light. Not all at once. Maybe not overnight. But that bearing up. That making it possible to keep going. And there have been days in the past, that that’s all I needed. An I can’t make it today without you kinda heart cry. But He meets us there. Don’t hold that back.

We are called to bear each other’s burdens. Called. There’s few things in life that are truly meant to portray the love Jesus has for us. Marriage of course being a notable one, but bearing each other’s burdens I think is a sure way to show Jesus’ love. In Galatians it goes so far as to say, “Bear one another’s burdens, and thereby fulfill the law of Christ.” Did you just catch that? And thereby fulfill the law of Christ! Commands it; display Jesus. It doesn’t say it when life is good either. I think some of the weightiest burdens can be made lighter by lifting others up as well. Don’t try to make yourself feel good or add more weight, but loving others helps our weight to be distributed. We can get so focused on ourselves and forget there’s a whole lot of others to notice around us. It’s not saying my needs aren’t important, it’s saying life is hard and yet I’m choosing to notice and see the value in those around us, and thereby increasing their value, even. Thank you to the many who have helped bear my burdens. I couldn’t finish this post without recognizing that. Thank. You. 

Lastly, YOU are not a burden. Oh, how I could go off on this one. But you should just read that first sentence to yourself again. Lies are burdens too. And that’s not one you are meant to ever carry.