Burden

I know you are carrying too many burdens.  The wear on you, physically, mentally, and spiritually, shows.  I wonder if you realize that you load may not be yours; that you are carrying the wrong load.  What would life be like if you had the right one?
 
It is hard to observe the loads people carry.  Mothers are struggling to respond compassionately against overwhelming demands.  Fathers are running away from demands that they can never seem to satisfy.  Children find themselves thrown into an adult’s world, consumed by fears and challenges that nobody should face much less those who are not full-fledged members of the older community.  In each case, the load varies but it is always overwhelming.  Individuals destroyed from the inside out by life’s burdens; fighting for his or her life; struggling to hold onto Hope. 
 
It is impossible to deny the realities of these burdens.  They are far too real.  They are far too personal.  They are natural outcomes of the world in which you and I live.  Yet I wonder; should this be the burdens we bear?
 
As I watched a short expose last night, I found myself being draft into a response by someone playing the concurrent roles of daughter, wife, and mother.  In her overwhelmed state of being with no end in sight, she said with a smile that she would have it no other way.  It was her opportunity to give.
 
Perhaps she had discovered what it is like to work as God works.  When God said, “I'll take the hand of those who don't know the way, who can't see where they're going.  I'll be a personal guide to them, directing them through unknown country.  I'll be right there to show them what roads to take, make sure they don't fall into the ditch.  These are the things I'll be doing for them—sticking with them, not leaving them for a minute.”  (Isaiah 42.16)  God was giving us a pattern to follow.
 
Life is full of burdens.  Let’s make sure we have the right ones, starting with God’s.