Losing Weight

    "My yoke is easy and my burden is light," says the Lord to us. What exactly does this mean, and how does it play out in our lives?
     The weights of our own lives and this world are too heavy for us to carry ourselves. If we don't believe this now, we will find out in time, when something or many things pile up, and we buckle under it's load.
      Before coming to Christ, we are trained by the world to "pack our own shoot," "look out for # 1" or "pull ourselves up by the bootstraps." All of these sayings, promote self-sufficiency. When we are in the trenches of life, however, and heavy artillery is being fired all around us, we sometimes fear for our very lives. We are scared, weak and tramatized. What then?
     There is a Christian song that says, "At the end of broken dreams, He's the open door." So, when our world puts on us more than we can bear, He waits there. I know 2 people right now who are at that place. My sincere prayer for them, is that they take the Open Door which is standing before them. I hope they see Him, and receive His invitation to be yoked with Him at this point in their lives, so their weights fall off.
     How does that work? By trust and faith in His love and ability to carry their load. By looking to Him not only for the answers, but also for assurance that He understands their grief, and desires to place them in Himself, as their protector and defender against all that would try and take them down. These enemies can be within or without, but once we are in Him, it is no longer our battle, but His. So, all burdens become light, because they aren't ours anymore. We let Him become our Burden-Bearer.
     Letting ourselves be placed in Him requires humility. Admitting defeat when we have been taught to "do it ourselves" sometimes even seems wrong, or atlease not taking responsibility. But He says, "come to me," and He uses these stressful and traumatic times in our lives to encourage us to do that.
     The world calls these times "crossroads." What is often meant by this, however, is that it is a time for us to do something different. While this is true, if we are without Christ or don't call on Him for help in these times, is that we garner up some more human strength temporarily, and try again to handle things ourselves. This only delays the true and permanent Help from Him. And so, the defeated cycle starts again.
     Lord, please help these 2 people who we love dearly to break under the pressure they are in, and confess to You their insufficiency and need of Your help. Increase their faith and trust in You, so that they can placed their tremendous weights on You. In this way, they can get easy and be lightened. And help all of us do the same with our daily cares. Help us to see You as our unloading Zone, which You are more than happy to be, and in fact, want to be for us. Amen.