Burdens

I strapped the guard on her for the hundredth time. It’s been three months. Every night we go through the same ritual of explaining why we wear the straps, and why there is a metal antenna reaching from her chin to above her forehead.  I am not sure I understand it.

You don’t tell a beautiful creation of God something is wrong.  We work on what is right.  “This will make your speech better, your teeth to come in stronger,” and then I add stuff I have completely made up, because frankly I don’t understand it either.

She looks at me with dark almond eyes and whispers, “I think orthodontists kill people.”.  I laugh and then realize she is completely serious.

That is how I look at burdens too.  Sometimes they are so big, so heavy, so ugly, I give them permission to suck the life out of me. I hear the preacher say it, “The American church prays for burdens to be lifted off their backs.  The world prays for stronger backs.”

What if today we stopped running away from the hard, the unfair and the frustrating?  What if we took that mammoth amount of reverse energy and put it towards Jesus.  What if we cupped our hands around each and every thing that is keeping us from Him and offered them to Him.

What if we moved away from the things that stand between Him and us?  That is it exactly.  This stuff, these pressures, this list, these priorities, the things we feel we are in charge of, they blind us to the One.

The One who has so graciously stepped aside waiting for the weight to almost break us.  Waiting for the hands to go up in surrender.  Waiting for us to scream, Enough and ask for the One who is sufficient.

Busy has become our badge and pressure has become our religion.  Peace, that is His promise.

Embracing the Burden Bearer is freedom.  

How rich, how beautiful this transaction of surrender.