Don't Carry Your Burdens Alone
Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.
Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me,
for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and your will find rest for your souls.
For My yoke is easy and My burden is light.
(Matthew 11:28-30 NKJV)
I come from a line of Scots and English. The English invented the term “stiff upper lip.” This means no matter what happens, you soldier on. No crying, no whining, no bleating. My mother was the epitome of that. I only saw her cry once in my life and that was in frustration and concern over a dog that was traveling home to its parents and got stuck overnight at the airport. I never saw her tears around the death of my dad, uncle, or grandmother. (I know someone is going to ask this—the dog made it safely home without any drama or stress. A kind airport employee took it home for the night and saw it safely onto its flight the next day.)
So, thanks to my heritage, I don’t like admitting I am struggling or going through a tough time. I try to soldier on and not let anyone know. One Sunday in church, however, God gave me a much-needed lesson in bearing one another’s burdens.
A young woman sitting next to me and my friend cried through the entire service. We passed a note to her asking her to write down what was causing her so much pain so we could pray for her. Glancing down at what she was writing, one word jumped out at me: “immigration.” She was currently going through the immigration process and was lonely and scared. There was no future for her in her country of birth; the U.S. was her only hope. After the service concluded, I leaned over and spoke to her. Her face lit up as soon as she heard my accent. God, in His amazing grace, had placed someone next to her who had been through a similar experience and could understand her burden and identify with her.
A couple of weeks later, she came running up to me and threw her arms around me, full of smiles to tell me how much better she was doing, how God was working in her situation, and how finding someone who had also walked the road she was currently trudging along had brought her so much comfort and hope.
It was a huge lesson for me. God means us to help each other and be there for each other. Asking for help and admitting perceived weakness is frightening, but there is a difference in having a burden and being a burden. We often don’t reach out for help for fear of being a burden. But there will be times in life when things we are dealing with become just too much to handle alone. God tells us He will bear our burdens, and He does, but He also uses people as His instruments to assist in carrying those burdens. He did not mean any of us to deal with life alone. By allowing people into your life and trusting them, you are not only affirming their value to you, you also open them up to receive the blessings God wants to bestow on them for helping you.
Bear one another’s burdens, and so fulfil the law of Christ” (Galatians 6:2 NKJV).
Don’t try to go it alone; reach out and let people help you when you are struggling.
Cast your burden on the Lord, and He shall sustain you; He shall never permit the righteous to be moved (Psalm 55:22 NKJV).
