Written by The Rev. Susan Diamond “Never bear more than one trouble at a time. Some people bear three kinds — all they have had, all they have now, and all they expect to have.” — Edward Everett Hale (1822-1909) Some of you may remember the TV show “Hee Haw” that aired from 1969-1992. Buck Owens and Roy Clark made famous a song that goes like this: “Gloom, despair, and agony on me. Deep, dark depression, excessive misery If it weren’t for bad luck, I’d have no luck at all Gloom, despair, and agony on me.” A quartet of four men look completely forlorn as they sing their pitiful verse with a twangy pitch and somber tone. It’s so ridiculous you can’t help but laugh. The truth is, troubles will come, and they hurt. But sometimes, we take on much more trouble than is ours to carry. I’ve been known to haul around my own burdens ... then Sister-so-and-so’s ... and if that’s not enough, Brother-so and-so’s, to boot! And when I do that, I find myself sinking lower and lower, getting absolutely nowhere in my journey of faith. Jesus said, “Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me; for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.” (Matthew 11:29-30) What this passage reminds us is that we can lay down our burdens, our troubles, our sorrows — all of the things we carry around that weigh us down. But then, Jesus says we are to take on another “burden” or “yoke”: the one that Christ showed us through his relationship with God in prayer. If we are to find rest for our souls, we need to join in the Lord’s prayer. Not the one that he taught his disciples that we pray in church every Sunday, but the one prayed in the Garden when he struggled with the greatest burden in the world: his own impending torture and death. “Not my will, but your will be done.” Only then could Jesus find the kind of spiritual rest that he needed to face what was ahead. Give your burdens to God. Release your tight grip, and receive rest, peace and power to face today with God’s grace.
Posted on: Sat, 06 Jul 2013 15:56:38 +0000
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