Burdens

When I was a teenager, from time to time, I went with the Boys’ Brigade on what we called an ‘expedition’. We went walking across the hills carrying everything we needed for a couple of nights - tent, sleeping bag, food, cooking utensils, change of clothes etc. It was heavy – and, though I enjoyed those walks, that is usually my first thought when I hear someone talking about a burden. A burden is something that is heavy. It weighs you down. I wonder what things are weighing us down, both individually and corporately, at the moment? What are the things that feel so heavy, the things that make us wonder if we can cope?

Lent is a good time to think about struggling – but, of course, struggling isn’t great if you get stuck and can’t emerge from the struggle. As Mark Francisco Bozzuti-Jones reminds us in “Never Said a Mumbalin’ Word”, “The best way to stop carrying a burden is to put it down.” I do fear that sometimes our struggles are because we just refuse to put down the burden. We think we have to keep carrying it – and we don’t. Don’t get caught up with all that stuff you are carrying. Instead, look for what God is calling you to do now! As Bozzuti-Jones also comments: “The best way to do something is to begin it.”