for each one should carry their own load.
Galatians 6:5
I grew up at the feet of the master. My dad was not only a world-class expert at this life skill, he practiced and lived it each and every day. You could see it in his face and expressions. You could hear it in his words.
He was negative. But being negative doesn’t sound strong enough because of its impact on his life and that of the people around him. He was pessimistic to the nth degree.
No matter what it was, it would never work. It was destined to fail. The Orioles were going to lose. No matter the lead that the Baltimore Colts had built, they were going to blow it. Traffic was always going to be bad. The tomatoes in his garden weren’t going to produce.
I once asked my dad about how his feelings about life and why he was so negative. I’ll never forget his answer. He sat up and looked straight into my eyes and said, “This way, I’m never going to be disappointed.”
It used to be that there were two kinds of people: half-empty and half-full. Half-empty people looked at life and thought it was a disappointment. That their life was missing something. That someone else got all the breaks and they only got passed over.
And then there were the people that thought life was OK and things were going to get better. These are the half-full people They knew that there was pain in the world, but that it was all going to somehow work out ok for everyone.
The days of the half-empty and half-full people have been replaced by the totally empty crowd. The pandemic. The economy. The government. Politicians. The internet. TV. Movies. Everything’s negative.
The reality of modern life in the 21st century is that everyone, and I mean everyone, has a heavy load. It’s their personal load and it’s for them to carry it. We have a burden that slows us down. We have a weight that makes us bend over, struggling to make it through the day.
Some of us struggle with the load of inferiority. We feel that life’s unfair. That we somehow got the short end of the stick. We got shortchanged when it comes to this life.
After all, others got so much more. Why didn’t we? What did they do to earn it? Deserve it? What didn’t we do? What did we forget to do that’s keeping it all away from us?
It’s not fair! Life’s not fair. We deserve better. We deserve more.
How many times have we heard this before? Or to be more direct, how many times have we said this ourselves? Do we look at life as one great big missed opportunity? Is life just a series of ways that people have screwed us over?
I’m not saying that evil hasn’t been done against us. I’m not saying that the people who’ve done those things aren’t responsible for the pain they’ve inflicted. But I am saying that we all have a load that we’ve picked up and put on ourselves.
Paul’s saying that we have a personal weight when it comes to sin. We, individually, have our own load. Our own burden that we’re carrying around. We’ve loaded up our backpack with lots of guilt, shame, pain, and grief till it’s bursting at the seams.
And then we slowly lift up our huge burden and strap it to our backs. It’s so heavy that we’re bent over under its weight. Every step is a struggle. We all have weaknesses, where certain burdens and sins just seem to follow us around.
But that’s not the end of the story. There is someone who cares deeply about us and our struggles.
I have made you and I will carry you; I will sustain you and I will rescue you.
Isaiah 46:4
It is God himself that will carry us. He’s more than strong enough to life us up and carry us on himself. But his carrying isn’t just for some temporary rest. Oh no, he keeps it up. Keeps us up.
He offers and promises that he will rescue us too. There will be an end to our trials. A conclusion to our pain and suffering. and who has fallen himself, who is willing to bear his neighbor’s burden. A lifting of our load.
Then there will be peace in our souls. Peace in our lives. Our loads will be lifted once and for all. That will be a day.
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