Whether Your Burden Be Heavy or Light

This is my work bag. When I set it on the passenger seat as I'm driving to campus, it triggers the fasten seatbelt light. It bursts at the seams with my binder, books, and paperwork. Rarely can I zipper it closed.

If my bathroom scale is accurate, it weighs 16.7 pounds.


This is my three-year-old's tote bag. On Tuesday and Thursday mornings, she carries it to pre-school. It typically contains two or three pieces of paper. (Four on a rigorous coloring day.)


Each time I pick her up, I ask if she'd like me to carry her bag for her. The tote isn't heavy, but she's willing to relinquish it, to hand it over, to become even less encumbered.  She releases control entirely, and because of this, she walks in complete freedom.

I learn so much from her example. I think of how I've held onto heavy burdens, collapsing under their weight. I think of how I've clung to light burdens, certain I can handle them, disregarding the gradual fatigue that festers into exhaustion or discouragement.

Through a mere tote bag, my daughter has reminded me that the burdens we carry through life -- the excess baggage of hang-ups, hurts, and failures; the complex problems that we arrange and rearrange in our minds -- aren't ours for carrying.  As a follower of Christ, I'm reminded that it's not only my privilege, but also my responsibility, to relinquish my cares, my heart, my thoughts, my attitudes, my behaviors -- essentially, my entire life -- to the Lord.

Whether my burdens be heavy or light, may I always be willing to hand them over to stronger arms than my own.

"Come to me, all you who are weary and heavy-laden, and I will give you rest."  
Matthew 11:28

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6 comments

  1. Oh Robin, this is simply delightful. How wonderful our Lord is to take those burdens and carry them for us! Sometimes I feel like my burdens are a U-haul full... but I know my walk with Him is better when I let go of them.


    Thank you for sharing this.
    xoxo

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  2. My pleasure, Jennifer. I'm hoping that your days are much more tote bag, and much less U-Haul... (Either way, you're in good hands.)

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  3. Hey there!This post has shown me that I am never alone no matter what I am facing which is exactly how I needed to feel when reading this. Thank you for posting.
    Kate M (www.domesticallychallenged.net)

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  4. What a lovely post, as usual! Such simple truth, from our best teachers in faith - children. I'm still on the journey of learning to do this regularly, practising it. Meditation is beginning to help me with this as it forces me to stop and 'be' in him. What an amazing God we have that we can hand our cares over to him....!

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  5. Yes, what an amazing God we have, indeed!

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