I sure felt a heavy weight dragging me down this past week. We visited our daughter who went through cancer treatment for ten long months last year and is continuing to deal with the life altering side-effects.  What she has gone through and continues to go through is heart-wrenching.  While we were at her house, a close friend texted that she had gotten the dreaded diagnosis.  That text brought the memories flooding back for all of us.  We watched while our granddaughter, a young teen, asked her mom, “Will I get cancer?  Why did you get it, Mom?”  Seeing our granddaughter grapple with these painful issues tore our hearts.    I felt crushed by the weight of it all.  Sometimes the world seems too sad.  I’m so good at stuffing those emotions, but two days later it all hit me and reduced me to tears.  I was disassembling my studio so the space could be used for a garage and the futility and failure of my business stung.  But nothing compared to the loss of health that our daughter and friend are experiencing.  They are a constant reminder that this life is heavy with burdens.  I’m not prone to depression, but a black cloud hung over me figuratively and literally.  A chilling wind relentlessly blew cold rain from a gray on gray sky.  I needed a ray of hope, a lightening of my load.  That’s when I remembered a very precious promise made by the One who called himself the Light of the world.

Then Jesus said, “Come to me, all of you who are weary and carry heavy burdens, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you. Let me teach you because I am humble and gentle at heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy to bear, and the burden I give you is light.”  Matthew 11:28-29

I was sure burdened and weary.  So I re-read the verses and thought about them.  Re-read and thought some more.  Gradually it dawned me that this wasn’t just a comforting, warm-fuzzy verse about rest.  It is about the active participation of two parties- me and the Lord.

Our part 
“Come to me. . .”  When we’re tired and weighed down by life we can come to him.  Prayer is simply talking to God.  We dump it all at his feet.  Our fears, our discouragement, our complaints.  We just stumble into his presence and lay it all out before him.  He already knows, but it’s good to admit it to him.

“Take my yoke. . .”  When we take his yoke, we agree to submit to the Lord and do what he wants us to do.  Think of an ox submitting to being yoked to a plow.  An ox couldn’t push a plow, but with a yoke, it can pull a plow and accomplish preparing a field for seed.  God provides us with a special yoke that fits us personally and helps us accomplish certain tasks.  He doesn’t assign us a task that he hasn’t outfitted us to accomplish.  He won’t ask me to write music or fix engines because he hasn’t suited me for that work.  He has made a yoke for me that allows me to ‘plow’ a blog week after week that hopefully prepares the soil of hearts to receive the seed of God’s Word.  I could refuse to wear it, but submitting to his yoke enables me to fulfill my purpose.  What job can you accomplish with the yoke he has made especially for you?

“Let me teach you. . .”  We learn from him by reading the Scriptures, thus filling our minds with truth.  Truth is our rock solid foundation for approaching life.  Our decisions are based on it, our emotions are anchored by it, our freedom depends on it.  This means that his teachings cause lifestyle changes.  When Jesus teaches us through the Bible, we allow him to change the way we think and act.  As the saying goes, ‘He loves us just the way we are, but he loves us too much to leave us that way.’  He has high hopes for us.  He sees what we can be and he’s able to get us there.  That means that some of what he teaches us is pointing out where we’re off track, where we’ve done wrong.  He doesn’t ignore our faults and wrong deeds.  He brings them to our attention.  He asks us to change our minds and embrace doing the right thing.  He doesn’t give up on us when we fail again.  He just keeps nudging us in the right direction as long as we let him.  What is he bringing to your attention that he wants to change in you?

“You will find rest for your souls …”  the truth and promises of Scripture will be transferred from our minds to a deep place in our souls by God’s Spirit.  We will rest in those promises even when our emotions try to shipwreck us.  His promises are an anchor that holds us securely in the worst storms.  We aren’t tossed around at the mercy of our feelings. (which isn’t to say that our feelings aren’t real, we just don’t allow them to make decisions for us and control us.)  Instead, we rely on God’s faithful promises that he is with us and has a happily-ever-after story for us.  Are you resting or resisting?

His part
“I will give you rest…”  He is willing and able to relieve us.

“I am humble and gentle at heart…”  He is never demanding and overbearing, driving us ever harder.  No, he is tender and comes down to our level.  He knows what being human is.  He understands.  He comes to the sad, the worn down, the defeated ones.  He is actually drawn to us when we’re hurting.

“The burden I give you is light  …” Paul, the apostle,  was in the middle of difficulties, yet he wrote, “For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all.  So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen.”  2 Corinthians 4:17. All the suffering we go through in this life is temporary and small in comparison to the everlasting happiness we will enjoy in the next life.

What should we do when we feel tired and weighed down by life?  
Come to Jesus in prayer.
Let him teach us by reading the Bible and obeying it.
Soak in his gentleness and humility as we remember he is close to us in our pain.
Take his easy yoke by submitting to him and doing the work he has suited us for. 
Trade our heavy burdens for his light burden in view of eternity and the happiness awaiting us.
Receive his rest in our souls as we trust his promises. 

“Therefore we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day.  For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all.  So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen, since what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.”  2 Corinthians 4:16-18