Mama's Heavy Load

She walked awkwardly toward me, listing to one side like a sinking canoe. In her hand she clutched her black leather purse. “It’s so heavy,” she muttered to me. I rushed to relieve her of her load and groaned myself. It felt like she was toting a bowling ball. A man-size one. What on earth?

Mama had Alzheimer’s disease. Her brain was filled with tangles and globs so that she no longer had the ability to think or act or respond in a normal or routine way. One of her new behaviors was to obsessively gather (steal!) items wherever she was and stuff them in her purse. When we were in a store, someone’s home, church, or a hotel, I couldn’t let my unintentional thief out of my sight. Oh my! Lots of explanations and apologies. Thankfully, no arrests!

At home, restless, Mama would randomly pack deodorant, hairspray, books, a jewelry box, old food containers, empty toilet paper rolls, a slipper, and a stuffed animal or two into that stretched out bag. She dragged it around, possessively guarding it, refusing to set it down, and wearing herself out from its weight. And she wouldn’t let me help.

What an unnecessary burden! What a load to carry! Poor Mama!

She needed to lay it down.

I think my sweet Mama isn’t the only one who shoulders pointless loads.

Many of us are burdened by figuring life our on our own. We are saddled with other’s opinions and expectations. We are weighed down with greed, a lust for power and control, someone else’s standard for popularity, the need to be beautiful, wise, or successful. We are bowing under the weight of needing a perfect home, job, car, vacation, wedding, education, resume, children, marriage, friends. We are trudging along bearing sin, fear, guilt and shame.

Stop it! Run to the cross!  Lay it down! It really is that simple.

As God’s children, we simply do not have to carry these burdens anymore. As His children, we have been bought with the price of His very own blood. He has clothed our filthiness with His lovely righteousness and declared we are His. We no longer must figure life out on our own, to live for ourselves or others. We are under new management, wise, capable, powerful, gracious and limitless. Our gracious Owner is committed to supplying everything we need and to protecting us and to strengthening us and to giving us real purpose.  

“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 11:28-30)

And I am also thinking today of so many of my sweet friends and acquaintances who are shouldering, not unnecessary burdens, but incredibly difficult, legitimate burdens. These loads include the loss of loved ones, diagnoses of frightening illnesses, unreconcilable relational separations, injustice, abuse, uncertain jobs, aging difficulties…I could go on and on.

But my Father reminded me again this morning as I read Psalm 55:22 that we don’t have to carry any burdens alone.

“Cast your burden on the LORD, and He will sustain you; he will never permit the righteous to be moved.”

Why don’t we get this? Why are we so inclined to wallow under crushing burdens He wants to carry for us? And even more sweet than that precious promise are these words He speaks to us from Isaiah 46:4.

“I have made you and I will carry you; I will sustain you and I will rescue you.”

He won’t just carry our burdens, real or imagined. He will even carry us.

Won’t you let Him?

Lay it down.

—Eileen Hill

The Essentials

I recently finished a book, Essentialism, by Greg McKeown. The main concept of the book is the importance of living a life that really matters by embracing what is essential – knowing who you are and what you were made to do – your gift to the world - and guiltlessly saying “no” to others' non-essential requests.  It’s not so easy in the real world.

The concept that Essentialism proffers brings me to a certain sad revelation about the context of my life, the work I am called and gifted to do, and how I must navigate the cultural and work environments of my life if I am to remain spiritually alive and flexible in spirit. I know that a drive to be authentically and powerfully the son of my Father and fully alive, is the nuclear core of my life but that is not enough. I must also allow myself to be trained to live, as Jesus lived, doing, and saying only what my Father is doing and saying. Perhaps the lens of defining what is essential and eliminating more of the non-essential is another weapon to help me live out, with passion, my life in Christ. I intend to take the journey.

There is a wisdom to be applied in remodeling one’s life. Stories of remodeling work that end up catching the building on fire or dropping people from roofs come across our paths. In my early days of residential work, I can still remember times when I scampered to put out a fire or prevent a collapse or pick myself up off the ground because I was moving too fast or not considering the environment of my immediate actions. No sense in doing that again. Especially in the context of spiritual family.

I guess the bottom line is to know what the main thing is. Why am I constructed like I am? What is the main thing that, if I were to do it faithfully, would give me that “my yoke is easy, and my burden light” experience that releases confident joy and that ability to dance in the rain? A life not constrained to only endure but to express the power purchased by the victory of Jesus.

These are some of my essentials…to know my Father more intimately, to love myself more honestly, to celebrate what I bring to life, and to enjoy the sound of all the dropping non-essentials and celebrate them as victories.

—George Davis

Some Thoughts on Prayer

I recently read the book A Praying Life by Paul E. Miller. Below are some thoughts I had related to prayer coming out of that book:

• It doesn’t matter how messy my prayers are. The book of Psalms is full of prayers filled with doubt, anger, anxiety, fear and confusion. Keep bringing all of what you feel to God.

• We need to ask God for things as a little child asks - with persistence, with faith and without cynicism. 

• Simply crying, “Papa, Papa, Papa!” or “Father, Father, Father!” or “Help Me!” is part of praying continuously. 

• Being in touch with our weakness is a good thing. Desperation is at the heart of the praying life. 

• When God doesn’t answer a prayer, sometimes it’s because He wants to expose something in me. 

• It’s OK (and actually really good!) to have meandering prayers that go from one thing to another, getting distracted and moving back and forth between things. It’s typically the way we talk to most people we know well.

• Writing down prayers is helpful for remembering and also demonstrates importance (like the way we put items in our calendar because we don’t want to forget).

• Journaling helps us in the journey and helps us reflect on what God is doing.

• We need Jesus. We need time to reflect on our lives with the Father everyday. 

Every other Wednesday night at Living Faith we have a chance to practice praying together! Join us from 6:30 - 8pm tonight!

—Charissa Ricketts