WEIGHT
Trusting God to take your burden
Do you carry extra, unnecessary weight around like I do? Do you have a handbag that is weighty? Yes, guilty! It contains more stuff than I’d ever need, but as a Brownie in Primary School, I’m one of these people prepared for a rainy day. That’s my excuse anyway!
I clean out my bag every so often, throw away the light stuff (like papers, receipts, sweet wrappers, tissue), but otherwise it remains the same.
I sometimes have a bad handbag day - that’s when I feverishly empty out the contents and look at it despairingly before dropping items in places that they need to go outside the bag. (garbage, filing or back in bag). What about when you have to change bags, and just when you need this one thing that is usually untouched for months, and it is not there - left in the old bag! SO annoying!
I lift my Mum’s bag when she visits and goes up my numerous front steps so that she can safely hold on to the railings. And yes, her bag is as heavy, or heavier than mine!
Are you a heavy packer when you’re going on a trip? I am, taking things I just might need, and never use them. I have gotten better over the years, with my husband’s help!
When I think of weight, I think:
1. My middle age stomach
2. Being Laden down with grocery bags
3. Hand held phones used while lying down for long periods, which equals neck ache for me
4. Grimacing shoulder pain and listening to someone venting at the same time
5. Opposite of dead weight is buoyant When I scuba dive I am pretty buoyant so I have to use more weights, either pocket ones or belted, otherwise I float to the surface
A little more about Dead weight - We were watching a new National Geographic documentary called The Rescue - the story of the 12 boys and their football coach trapped deep within caves in Thailand. After more than 15 days ?? The difficult decision was made to sedate each boy before being able to safely bring them out - a two and a half hour diving journey was required to get them out of the heavily flooded caves, a harrowing journey even for the most qualified cave divers. The boys were dead weights as the heroic divers swam them out. They all survived. It’s a heart-warming and tearful watch.
Weight and burden sort of go hand in hand.
According to The Oxford Dictionary Thesaurus and Wordpower Guide, Weight means heaviness or influence; adjective weighty means heavy, serious, important or influential .
Burden means something carried or an obligation causing hardship; the verb to load or to oppress.
(Sorry about that, I liked English grammar at school!!)
Do you get a heavy head sometimes? I do, it feels overloaded and tense. That’s when I should remember to focus on my breath, and try to do a stretch /Pilates movement. I read in Jesus Calling devotional ‘I am ever so near you, hovering over your shoulder’. I’m liking that.
So .. we are coming to the end of this episode, and, if you have listened to any of my previous ones, this is where I get, inverted commas, ‘religious’!! (I really don’t like that word!)
Jesus said in Matthew 11: 28-30 COME TO ME, ALL YOU WHO ARE WEARY AND BURDENED, AND I WILL GIVE YOU REST. TAKE MY YOKE UPON YOU AND LEARN FROM ME, FOR I AM GENTLE AND HUMBLE IN HEART, AND YOU WILL FIND REST FOR YOUR SOULS. FOR MY YOKE IS EASY AND MY BURDEN IS LIGHT.
The Passion Bible translation puts it this way: ARE YOU WEARY, CARRYING A HEAVY BURDEN? THEN COME TO ME. I WILL REFRESH YOUR LIFE, FOR I AM YOUR OASIS. SIMPLY JOIN YOUR LIFE WITH MINE. LEARN MY WAYS AND YOU’LL DISCOVER THAT I’M GENTLE, HUMBLE, EASY TO PLEASE. YOU WILL FIND REFRESHMENT AND REST IN ME. FOR ALL THAT I REQUIRE OF YOU WILL BE PLEASANT AND EASY TO BEAR.
“I am your Oasis” - Oasis … that image to me is a beautiful place, full of sweet water and everything you need to replenish yourself in the middle of a hot parched desert, given freely to help you in your ongoing journey. I’LL TAKE THAT ANY DAY!
