Weight Lifting

Then Jesus said, “Come to me, all of you who are weary and carry heavy burdens, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you. Let me teach you, because I am humble and gentle at heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy to bear, and the burden I give you is light.”

Matthew 11:28-30

 

One piece of counsel I give to Sheriff's Department New Hires is simple yet very visual and practical: "Every time you feel stressed, anxious, upset, or angry take a piece of gravel and put it in your cargo pocket."  Why does this work?  Because when we add just a few ounces of extra burden to our lives, we don't really notice any difference at first. We figure we can handle the extra burden, so we ignore it and keep moving.  However, over time the burden becomes heavy enough that we notice and we become irritated by the extra burden.  The final step comes when the extra burden becomes heavy enough to make functioning a real effort.  This is when I usually get a "I hate you" phone call.  Then the counsel becomes, "When your burden becomes heavy enough for you to notice, it's past time to deal with it."  Which opens the door for a conversation about letting go of the burdens we cannot change.

 

Not everything we encounter is under our control!  These are the situations where we must realize that HOW we respond to these situations that determines whether or not we will carry that burden or not.

 

Jesus tells us that we need to come to Him.  When we come to Him, we give Him ALL of our burdens, concerns, disappointments, frustrations, anxieties, stresses and LEAVE them all with Him to deal with.  When we are able to do that, our lives will become MUCH brighter and lighter!