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from Volume 28 No. 5 March-April 2008

How heavy is your burden?

Some of our burdens are heavy, like a huge rock on our back, forcing us to bend over and struggle under the load.

Maybe illness or death or heartbreak has crushed us under a mountain of pain.

Some burdens are as light as a feather, small things that wouldn't even worry most people but they feel big to us. Maybe we are feeling neglected or we are worried about money or our car is breaking down or someone hurt our feelings. The burden is real.

If our heavy burden weighed as much as a brick, we could hold the brick in our hand for five minutes with no problem at all. After ten minutes our fingers would hurt and our arm would shake. It would take a strong person to hold the brick for thirty minutes or an hour and the brick would feel as if it weighed a hundred pounds. The brick weighs the same as it did an hour ago, it hasn't gotten any heavier, but we've gotten tired of holding it. Our strength is gone.

If our small worries weighed as much as a feather, we could hold them much longer. At first we wouldn't even notice holding the feather in our hand but after awhile our arm would begin to get tired and ache. Holding the feather in our hand stops us from doing other things. Pretty soon all we can think about is the feather and all of our attention is focused on the feather and we want to get rid of it. Now the feather has become a heavy burden and feels just as heavy as the brick.

The weight of the burden isn't as important as how long we hold onto it. We were never meant to hold onto our burdens or to carry them alone.

Diana is a middle-aged divorced woman. She works alone all day in a small cubicle, she has lunch alone, drives home alone and lives alone.

"The hardest part of my day is when I come home and there is no one there to ask me how my day was. No one cares if I had a good day or a bad day," she says, "I need someone to ask me 'How was your day?'"

Diana is just one of millions of people who live alone and no one is there to ask them "How was your day?" The world is full of lonely people, perhaps more people are alone now than at any time in the history of the world.

For centuries, people lived in tribes or clans or small villages and had large families and close friends who knew them and cared about them. Now people are  isolated and lonely and they are carrying their burdens alone.

If you have a friend who lives alone, call them once in awhile and ask them, "How was your day?" Then listen, really listen and let them tell you.

A burden shared is half the burden, a joy shared is twice the joy. We were never meant to carry our burdens alone.

"Cast thy burden upon the Lord and He shall sustain thee."  Psalm 55:22