photo: dreamstime.com-Paul Prescott

If you are anything like me, and if you are reading this, you just might be, opening your eyes to places where you need to change and grow can be overwhelming!  It might even make you want to go crawl in your safe hole and hide!  I have had days during this series when I have been affected this way!

I hope you won’t be affected that way…or be burdened down with what you see as the need for more change that hinges on you!  And on that note, I’d like to share this Scripture passage that has been infinitely meaningful to me over many years, for your meditation today.

For me, the encouragement comes as I think of taking on Christ’s burden for me.  It is so different than the burden I try to carry.  I try to carry the burden of perfectionism, trying to please, looking good to others, and on down the line.  Your burden may be different, but you still may be carrying one.

The burden Christ carried for me

Jesus’ “burden” He carries for me is that He has lived a perfect life already.  I don’t have to.  He paid for my sin already.  I don’t have to do penance for my sin.  It is paid for and finished.  He took on the sin of my whole life and paid for it when He died on the cross!  In that respect, I have no burden to carry.  That job is done.  He carried that load for me.

In terms of many of the other burdens I carry, anxieties, concerns for the future?  I can give them to Him as well.  He can take care of them much better than I.

“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.”  

Matthew 11:28-30