Lets Talk About Your Stuff Because You Are NOT A Burden
Ever since I can remember I have always loved to hear stories. Perhaps that is in part why I am so drawn to a good movie, the story that is told in such a short amount of time and the way it speaks directly to the heart in a myriad of ways. Whether its the set up to a good joke or the recalling of an adventure in another place, there you will find me wide eyed and glued until the end.
But what started to happen as I got older did not make much sense. Those stories really began to change. No one really told as many anymore. Often times what used to be hours of listening ears and open hearts lessened to this hurried, diminished space. Another foreign entity began to creep in and it had many names... fear, doubt, shame, lies, burden, pain. So, many of the stories went along through life, unspoken and untold.
The more it happened the more I wanted to know why and if there was ever anything that could change this once life giving pastime. As I grew up, meeting people from all sorts of places, with all sorts of stories there were two words that were almost half whispered from the mouths of these people...
"I do not want to BURDEN you or INCONVENIENCE you with all of my stuff."
Over and over and over again I heard these phrases, these lies that began to fill the hearts of humans that in fact were desperate to tell these stories... but how could they? How can they find the space to speak of what they so deeply feel will be a burden to the ears and heart it will fall upon once it leaves their mouths?
I have never felt a weight like what this reality has left on my heart.
Because in part it is true... maybe you think, wait, you just called it a lie so how can it be true?
Truthful stories that souls are in need of sharing, they are in fact burdens. Marked by unexpected tragedy, acute pain thats almost unbearable, a momentary choice that changed the course of their life, a sin which they have never found the courage to bring into the light, fears, worries, insecurities, doubts... Do you see now? Absolutely, they have become burdens laden on their shoulders.
Here is why it is a lie when it keeps their story from being told:
"And he said to him, 'You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment. And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets.'"
Matthew 22:37-40
"Bear one another's burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ." Galatians 6:2
Jesus was asked what the greatest commandment in all of the law was and He responded with, "Love God. Love others."
Paul said that one thing fulfills the law of Christ, to "bear their burdens."
Bearing burdens is hard, and you know what? It really is inconvenient. I can honestly tell you that the burdens of my brothers and sisters in Christ do not fit neatly into my life. So how can I possibly do these things the Lord is asking me to do? How can I bear the burdens and love the souls when its hard and often inconvenient to do so?
We do this out of the identity that Christ has given us with Himself, because He has given us this insane gift and power, namely that we have become the residence of the Holy Spirit of God. Not in an overly stated manner or a delicately worded poem but in a sincere reality that makes us sons and daughters of God, that makes us bearers of His image to the watching world, souls renewed from death to life. Thats where the ability, resolve, desire, whatever you want to call it comes from.
Let me tell you that Jesus gets it, He gets why this is hard for us humans to do. Because even Jesus asked His Father for another way besides the coming burden that was meant to kill Him, so He knows what He is asking of you.
I really think it was an inconvenience for Jesus to leave heaven, to leave eternity to come and bear our own deadly burdens. But He said that by us doing the same thing for those around us it would fulfill His law.
Maybe the reason it fulfills the law of Christ is because it is His burden, one that takes everything on and then must die. How else can you do that? How can you take on the inmost hurts of another?
You will have to give yourself up, lay yourself down, you will have to die. It is not the most convenient way to live a life, but I think it is the only Jesus way to live a life.
So we must learn to live an inconvenienced life, a life of bearing the burdens and hearing ALL the stories, because that is the only way anyone is going to be able to live.
But what started to happen as I got older did not make much sense. Those stories really began to change. No one really told as many anymore. Often times what used to be hours of listening ears and open hearts lessened to this hurried, diminished space. Another foreign entity began to creep in and it had many names... fear, doubt, shame, lies, burden, pain. So, many of the stories went along through life, unspoken and untold.
The more it happened the more I wanted to know why and if there was ever anything that could change this once life giving pastime. As I grew up, meeting people from all sorts of places, with all sorts of stories there were two words that were almost half whispered from the mouths of these people...
"I do not want to BURDEN you or INCONVENIENCE you with all of my stuff."
Over and over and over again I heard these phrases, these lies that began to fill the hearts of humans that in fact were desperate to tell these stories... but how could they? How can they find the space to speak of what they so deeply feel will be a burden to the ears and heart it will fall upon once it leaves their mouths?
I have never felt a weight like what this reality has left on my heart.
Because in part it is true... maybe you think, wait, you just called it a lie so how can it be true?
Truthful stories that souls are in need of sharing, they are in fact burdens. Marked by unexpected tragedy, acute pain thats almost unbearable, a momentary choice that changed the course of their life, a sin which they have never found the courage to bring into the light, fears, worries, insecurities, doubts... Do you see now? Absolutely, they have become burdens laden on their shoulders.
Here is why it is a lie when it keeps their story from being told:
"And he said to him, 'You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment. And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets.'"
Matthew 22:37-40
"Bear one another's burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ." Galatians 6:2
Jesus was asked what the greatest commandment in all of the law was and He responded with, "Love God. Love others."
Paul said that one thing fulfills the law of Christ, to "bear their burdens."
Bearing burdens is hard, and you know what? It really is inconvenient. I can honestly tell you that the burdens of my brothers and sisters in Christ do not fit neatly into my life. So how can I possibly do these things the Lord is asking me to do? How can I bear the burdens and love the souls when its hard and often inconvenient to do so?
We do this out of the identity that Christ has given us with Himself, because He has given us this insane gift and power, namely that we have become the residence of the Holy Spirit of God. Not in an overly stated manner or a delicately worded poem but in a sincere reality that makes us sons and daughters of God, that makes us bearers of His image to the watching world, souls renewed from death to life. Thats where the ability, resolve, desire, whatever you want to call it comes from.
Let me tell you that Jesus gets it, He gets why this is hard for us humans to do. Because even Jesus asked His Father for another way besides the coming burden that was meant to kill Him, so He knows what He is asking of you.
I really think it was an inconvenience for Jesus to leave heaven, to leave eternity to come and bear our own deadly burdens. But He said that by us doing the same thing for those around us it would fulfill His law.
Maybe the reason it fulfills the law of Christ is because it is His burden, one that takes everything on and then must die. How else can you do that? How can you take on the inmost hurts of another?
You will have to give yourself up, lay yourself down, you will have to die. It is not the most convenient way to live a life, but I think it is the only Jesus way to live a life.
So we must learn to live an inconvenienced life, a life of bearing the burdens and hearing ALL the stories, because that is the only way anyone is going to be able to live.
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