Perfect Burden, Perfect Freedom

On Sunday morning I went to church with a dear friend (who told people at the church that I was her son, creating some amusing confusion later on). During the service, she prayed. And as she prayed, I felt overwhelmingly burdened.

Not in a good way. In a way that could lead to despair. Maybe you'll be able to sympathize.

Because she was praying for the persecuted church, and as she prayed, she quoted Samuel: "... far be it from me that I should sin against the LORD by failing to pray for you" (1 Samuel 12:23, NIV). At first it sounded so beautiful. But then I started to realize just how often I commit precisely that sin. I fail even to pray for people. I fail to pray for the persecuted church. I fail to pray for our country's leaders. I fail to pray for my friends, for my family, even for myself. Not always. But more often than I care to admit, I fail to pray. Which means that I sin often. "Anyone, then, who knows the good he ought to do and doesn't do it, sins" (James 4:17).

What a failure. What a burden. A perfect burden, really. I mean, if perfection is taken to mean "ultimate," then my sin is the ultimate burden. There is no denying it. There is no overcoming it. There is no escaping it. My failure is evident. And yet...

Even as my mind began to recognize the weight of my failures, and as my heart began to sense the burden of Jesus' call for me - for all of us - to do what is right (a call that relentlessly hounds us even while we're failing), the Holy Spirit guided my mind to another place in His Word, a place where I found perfect freedom. Ultimate freedom.

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. - Matthew 11:28-29

Jesus invited me to bring my burden to Him. He didn't make the burden disappear. It wasn't magically gone. In fact, I still add to it. Daily. The burden is still growing, even now, after I've come to Jesus.

But I'm not carrying it anymore. He is. I'm sharing Jesus' yoke, moving in Jesus' direction - which calls me to pray for others, among many other good and wonderfully right ways He calls me to love God and love people. I'm moving in Jesus' direction, in spite of my burden, because Jesus takes the burden off my shoulders and puts it on His own, and deals with it on the cross. And you know what? There's no burden too big for Him.

So I still fail. But I'm yoked to Jesus, and I don't carry the weight of my burdens. I have the perfect, ultimate burden, because my sins are too much for me to handle. But I have the perfect, ultimate freedom, because Jesus is too much for my sins to overcome! Because of Him, I am free... and being freed further every day.