She Leads: Burden Free: Pt 4
Ladies, we are busy. I know I feel like I juggle at the very least 100 different things a day. Some brave days I feel like superwoman, while other days I feel like I might lose my mind.
We are crazy good at handling everything life throws at us for the most part, which leaves little to no room for God to be present in our daily routine and it leaves even less room for Him to lead us.
He may be part of our routine prayers at mealtime, frequent prayers for patience, maybe a short devotional, and then we end it with routine prayers at bedtime. All those things are good, but once again, we often wind up making God part of our routine instead of relying on Him during the routine. It’s easy to do because it’s routine. God doesn’t need to be bothered with the humdrum of daily life. That’s our job, right? We like to lead ourselves in this department.
One busy afternoon, I was carrying stuff from my car into my church. It was a lot of stuff and included my purse, which on average weighs about 50 pounds. (Okay fine, I’m exaggerating...but barely.) Since the purse was hanging on my shoulder, I thought to myself, “I can carry all this in one trip no problem.” I was trying to avoid multiple trips, and all you busy women out there know what I’m talking about.
I looked like a pack mule, but I was determined. It all went well for the first two steps, then my purse fell from my shoulder to the bend in my arm. So frustrating. Whether or not your arms are full, that is the worst. I soldiered on, but then the weight was distributed unevenly, so I leaned to the left to compensate for the extra 50 pounds now on my right arm, which of course set everything off balance. To top it all off, I had piled everything nice and high, so I was praying that nothing was on the memorized path to the front door. And did I mention it was 600 degrees with 500 percent humidity? (Again, barely exaggerating.)
If only someone would have helped me!
Oh wait, there was that one person who offered three times to help, yes THREE times! I think my exact words were, “Thank you, but I’ve got it. If you take anything, I’ll drop it all.” Exactly one second after he walked in the building, I dropped everything. It all happened in slow motion. I tried to catch it all, but it was soon very clear that wasn’t going to happen. So I focused on maybe just one thing I could catch, but nope. It all crashed down around me. I felt the sting of tears in my eyes. I was frustrated. I was hot and I felt foolish and embarrassed.
Slowly I started picking everything up one by one and taking it inside. When the gentleman noticed what I was doing, he ran to help me. I was waiting for the “I told you so” or “what were you thinking,” but none of that was said. He just quietly helped me bring it all in.
We do that to Jesus, don’t we? We are going about life and things are piling up and we think we can carry it all. Along the way Jesus is saying, “Can I carry that for you?” But we say, “No. If I give you one thing, I may see the need to give you the rest, and....well, I can do this on my own.”
As the load gets heavier and larger He says, “Are you sure I can’t take some of that from you?” We stubbornly say no because we think that our problems, our lives, our burdens, our hurts, our fears, our hearts are safest in our arms. We can lead ourselves out of the mess. We have a sense of pride in thinking we can handle it all on our own. But as time goes on, the weight gets the better of us it all comes crashing down.
Some of us try to avoid the I-told-you-so speech from God by trying to pick up the pieces ourselves, but God is always watching and waiting for the opportunity to show you how much He loves you. He rushes to your side and quietly starts to pick up the pieces. He lovingly and skillfully starts to put you back together.
Psalms 46:1 says, “God is our refuge and strength, always ready to help in times of need.”
He is READY. He is available. He is waiting to be your hero, He is waiting to be your Savior, and He wants to be your help in times of need. He is your refuge, He is your safe place, and He has all the strength needed to carry your heavy load. Instead of making God follow you around, how about letting Him lead you. Try making Him the author and finisher of your routine. When you allow Him into your life and allow Him to lead you, you will notice that the stresses of leading yourself will no longer exist. Life’s burdens won’t pile up because Jesus will be there to carry them.