Come to me, all who are weary...

In reading Emily P. Freeman’s article “When Your Bag is Heavy and Your Faith Feels Small” I was reminded of something that happened to me on Saturday.  It was not quite eight a.m. when my sister knocked on my bedroom door and asked, “Can you rouse yourself for prayer?”  She didn’t wait for my reply, seeming to know that I would get up – somehow.  Like most people I know, I so look forward to sleeping in on my one day off.  Sundays usually require an early start for church, so like my son, Saturdays are my vacation days – sleep in until my eyes pop open on their own kind of days.

I was still somewhat disoriented and grunted in my response to the now empty space framed between my door posts.  I literally dragged myself and my winter blanket into my mom’s room for the meeting.  I had yet to speak out loud and had the early morning frog still nestled snugly in my vocal pipes.  I found that I pondered about that for a while, as I croaked out the responsive AMEN to my sis’s Amen? (She had been up for more minutes than myself and was bursting with enthusiasm).

She spoke as led by the spirit of God.  Verse after verse she set about being obedient.  I was still in a daze, but awake enough to take notes for later.  She then asked us to stand in God’s presence; to stand before Him and be in awe of Him.  I did.  It was then that I noticed how heavy my blanket had become around my shoulders.  I don’t remember it starting out like that, but as we progressed into the hour, the weight was noticeable and distracting.  It seemed all I could think about even as my mom and sister sang the heart stirring chorus “I Stand, I stand in awe of you”.  I admit that I was not thinking of God at all. I could only think of this burden about my shoulders; but He was thinking about me.

In His quiet voice, He whispered the solution, so simple and obvious.  Take off the blanket.  I can already see how you may be tempted to roll your eyes and say “Duh!”  I give you permission to do just that if you are so inclined.  Yet, hear me out. My preoccupation with the heavy blanket was more than that.  It hindered my worship, and shifted my focus from what was happening right before me. I was standing in God’s presence all along, but didn’t lift my eyes to Him. I didn’t acknowledge His presence the way one would a King.  I was busy.  I was restless in my mind. I was weighed down and thereby rendered ineffective in worship and unable to receive from Him.  I was at His table but didn’t eat.

So when He said take it off, it was now more than the blanket.  I did let the blanket fall to the ground.  It was then I noted how light I felt.  I literally felt like a weight had been lifted from my shoulders…it had been. I felt free.  He then used this simple act to project my life.  I was carrying the weight of my world; when the solution is just as simple…cast it off. Let it fall on Him.

You may be surprized to know that you have also been doing the same thing.  It is a good thing He doesn’t tell us “Duh!”  Instead He invites us to pray to Him when we don’t know what to do and He promises He will not be condescending in His response to us. In fact, He will tell us what to do.  He invites us to give him our burdens, and take up His, which is light.  He invites us to rest in Him.  Wont you take Him up on that invite?  "Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest." Matthew 11:28 (NIV)