Here in southwest Michigan we received another exquisite blanket of snow last night, 6” more. We (along with our next-door-neighbor Bob) have cleared the driveway so many times it’s become a calisthenic event to “throw” shovels-full to the top of the piles.
Today while navigating the now-narrow roads of my subdivision, I noticed the evergreens were so heavily laden with snow their branches could no longer hold up. Some of them had been pressed all the way to the ground.
Many of us have felt much like those evergreens, bent beneath our loads. On any given morning it might even be difficult to roll out of bed and stand up, if we’re faced with a day overloaded by burdens. And when life’s storms come in multiples as snowstorms often do, each new layer feels like another 6” of heavy.
God tells us it’s not supposed to be that way, not when we’re partnered with him. He actually describes burdens and “easy” and “lightweight”, though he’s referring to his, not ours. (Matthew 11:30) He wants to convince us to roll our burdens over to him, and in the process, the things that formerly weighed us down will disappear. Then those same weights become feather-light to him.
Our only problem is the roll-over. Just like it’s strenuous to throw a shovel of heavy snow on a high pile, “tossing” our troubles to the Lord is hard work, too. They tend to stick to us like snow sticks to mittens on a good-packing day. We might try to release them, but just when we think we’ve done it and are waiting for that feeling of sweet relief, we discover we’ve taken them back.
The reason for handing them back and forth to God is that we aren’t completely sure he’s going to deal with them as effectively as we would. And surrendering our control goes against our natural, prideful instincts. Incredibly we’d rather stagger around under a heavy weight than let him take over.
But once we truly believe he’s better at burden-bearing than we are, the hand-off becomes easier and we can enjoy a freedom of movement like we’ve never known.
But lest we get flippant in our new, weightless reality, God gives us an additional reason why he’s eager to shoulder our burdens: so we can lift the loads of others. In Galatians he says, “Carry each others burdens, and in this way you will fulfill the law of Christ.” (6:2) As always, he is our example. He unburdens us so we can unburden others.
Today as I study the small evergreens in my yard, it seems doubtful they’ll ever recover. Not only have they been weighed down by winter’s storms, they’ve had additional shovel-fulls piled on top of them. But these old bushes have been through difficult winters many times before, and when spring finally arrives, I’m going to hope they’ll be standing tall.
“Cast your burden on the Lord, and he will sustain you.” (Psalm 55:22)
