Remember three weeks ago when all the country was talking about was whether Simone Biles was a wimp or a hero? Yeah, I know, COVID was in the news like it is every day, but Simone Biles was a really big deal. And now, as it so often does, the world has turned on a dime. We're watching dumbstruck as unbelievable events happen in Afghanistan. And Haiti. For a second, we could distract ourselves with the Olympics and debates over masks in schools, but the loud, ugly, horrible things in this world will not be ignored for long.
My heart aches. My soul groans. "Enough!" I want to shout. "We can't carry any more burdens!"
Then, of course, I remember Jesus talking about burdens. You may know what He said, too, but it's worth writing out and reading again:
"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).
This morning as I was praying, I just had to ask: "Jesus, how can your burden possibly be light? I know only the tiniest fraction of what's going on in the world, and my load is so heavy that I'm about to collapse under it. You know it all. Every bit of it. And yet your yoke is easy and your burden is light?"
I'm not ever going to understand it. I just have to trust it and take Him up on His offer. He is so much greater, unfathomably greater, than I am that He can bear the heartbreaks of the entire world, across all generations, and still have plenty of capacity to bear mine.
