The Holy Spirit's Family Room

Family Room June 25, 2023

As we go along through the daily challenges of our lives, like broken sprinklers, cars, or bureaucratic problems, the term “heavily laden” may not seem to apply. Praise God! Each of our lives has those “ordinary times” when we just go along, go along. But each of our lives also has times of feeling laden. Some we can predict. Some we are responsible for ourselves. And some seem to come out of the blue: one day everything is “normal,” and the next day, nothing is. The ground has shifted beneath our feet. The thing is, as observers, we may not realize this shift has occurred for those we know and love.

Sometimes it is visible, like a leg in a cast. Sometimes it is hidden, like the pain of a broken relationshiip or loss of a job. The thing is, each of us has “laden” times. Where can we turn? Why do bad things happen to good people? We have been asking this from the beginning of time.

Jesus says, “I bless you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, for hiding these things from the learned and clever and revealing them to mere children. Yes, Father, for that is what it pleased you to do.” Jesus also has the solution: “Come to me, all you who labor and are overburdened, and I will give you rest. Shoulder my yoke and earn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls! Yes, my yoke is easy and my burden is light.”

Food for thought: If the burden given us by Jesus is light, what can we do to avoid being overburdened? Maybe we need to re-evaluate how much of our burden is God’s will for us and how much we put on ourselves? The “burden” of God is direct: Love one another! Our burden may include things like sorting out all those old pictures! Or cleaning out the garage.

Feeling burdened saps our strength. It can give us a defeatist attitude: I’ll never get this done! And maybe we won’t. And perhaps that is God’s will for us: to humbly admit what we cannot do, and to rely in trust on God’s plan, to love.