One thing that never gets old as i travel the world is watching people carry large and heavy loads. From trucks piled way too high, to precariously balanced motorcycles and
bicycles; people find a way to carry what they need. Although the motorized vehicles, loaded far beyond Department of Transportation regulations, make me smile. It’s the sheer ingenuity
and strength of men and women carrying cumbersome and sometimes massive loads that intrigue me the most.
i have observed throughout the years, especially in Asia and Africa, that if an individual is
carrying a heavy load, it often involves the head. Even if the bundle is too heavy or awkward to fit directly on the head, a cloth or piece of clothing is wrapped in a circle and placed between the
head and the object to be carried. If there is more than one item or if it is odd shaped, a strap is sometimes wrapped around the head for weight distribution, balance, and leverage while the
items are actually carried on the back.
This got me thinking. We in the united states have sophisticated ways of carrying our
physical loads. However, when it comes to our emotional and spiritual burdens, it's all about the head, just like our brothers and sisters in other countries.
We think to the point of obsession about the pain that a family member has inflicted.
We replay hurtful words and actions that have hurt us.
We consider ways to repay the injustices we have endured.
We are angry at God because He let something happen.
We are angry at our parents because they didn’t make something happen.
Ultimately, like our family members around the world, we too have found creative and innovative ways to carry our burdens.
“So Moses said to the LORD, ‘Why have You been so hard on Your servant? And why have I not found favor in Your sight, that You have laid the burden of all this people on me?”
When God called Moses, He made it very clear that HE (God) was the deliverer.
Let’s pick up the conversation in Exodus chapter 3.
5. “Don’t come any closer,” God told him. “Take off your shoes, for you are standing on holy ground. 6. I am the God of your fathers—the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.” (Moses covered his face with his hands, for he was afraid to look at God.)7. Then the Lord told him, “I have seen the deep sorrows of my people in Egypt and have heard their pleas for freedom from their harsh taskmasters. 8. I have come to deliver them from the Egyptians and to take them out of Egypt into a good land, a large land, a land ‘flowing with milk and honey’—the land where the Canaanites, Hittites, Amorites, Perizzites, Hivites, and Jebusites live. 9. Yes, the wail of the people of Israel has risen to me in heaven, and I have seen the heavy tasks the Egyptians have oppressed them with. 10. Now I am going to send you to Pharaoh, to demand that he let you lead my people out of Egypt.”
Moses was the front man, but God was the deliverer.
Yet, Moses figured out how to wrap them up, put a
strap around his head and hoist every single one of the mumbling, grumbling, manna despising, flesh desiring, wilderness wanderers onto his back.
When was the last time God asked YOU to carry a burden?
Sorry for the trick question, but God doesn’t ask you to bear burdens. That is HIS job. I love the way the Message Bible puts it. "Pile your troubles on God's shoulders-He'll carry your load. He will help you out." Psalms 55:22
Like Moses, you may be the front man (or woman), but God does the heavy lifting.
So, instead of coming up with new, imaginative and innovative methods of carrying your burdens, let God carry them.
