Heavy Burden

All too frequently we hear of mass murders. The most recent was only a few hours away from here where new immigrants were learning English. We shake our heads and say, "None of this makes any sense! How can man do this to one another?" We wonder where God is in all of this.

Yesterday I ran across a song that was sung at a memorial after sixteen school children and their teacher were killed by a gunman in Scotland in 1996. In speaking to God, the song lyrics went: We cannot measure how You heal or answer every sufferer's prayer, yet we believe Your grace responds where faith and doubt unite. (We Cannot Measure How You Heal- by John Bell)

Indeed there are times when we have to put one foot in front of the other and keep functioning even when life has become a terribly confusing weight. It's at those times that we wonder how we can go on. The burden seems too heavy to carry by ourselves. It's at these times that although we can't understand how God is working, even in all our doubt, we can still call out to God in faith. We need His help. We call out to Him for grace in order to make it through the day, or the hour, or the next few minutes of suffering.

How does God's grace come to us? What is one of the most common ways for His grace to come? I think it's when a friend comes alongside us and lets us talk. A friend who does not judge us or try to fix things. Just simply a friend with a listening heart and time to spare to be with us. The Bible says: Bear one another's burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ. Galatians 6:2 I believe a true friend does this for us and is the evidence of God's grace.

Just like in the picture above where a heavy slab of concrete is being carried by two people, in the same way a burden of the soul is halved when someone helps us carry it. To bear one another's burden is the supreme imitation of Jesus, the ultimate burden bearer, the one who bore all our sins and hurts on the cross.

I pray that God will always bring someone to come alongside of me when I need a friend, and likewise, I pray that I will be sensitive to others and listen with a caring heart when others are in need. As a follower of Jesus, doing the will of God is not a mysterious, unfathomable pilgrimage. Serving Him is as practical and simple as listening to others in their need.