Every day when I go for my walk in the park at lunch, I walk past an oak tree. Well, I walk past several hundred in reality, but one in particular sticks out to me. It doesn’t stick out to me because of its size (it’s comparatively small.) It’s not overly beautiful either (it looks like you run-of-the-mill oak tree.) Rather, I notice this tree because of the burden it bears. Several years ago, the huge tree next to it was struck by lightning, and in the years since, that tree died and fell onto its neighbor, leaning hard against it. But instead of crashing to the ground under the weight of its newfound burden, it is now very intertwined with the weight it carries.
Many of us find our lives like that – humming smoothly along, and then suddenly we are abruptly faced with something unexpected. A new burden is added to our life. And as if a tree fell on us, we feel as if we are being crushed by the weight.
Followers of Christ do not choose to do so because of the ease of their decision. In fact, rather than kept from burden, we are guaranteed to have trouble. However, we’re promised that we will never be given more than we are able to bear. We’re also promised that we’ll never go it alone, and if the burdens of life start to drag us down, we can come sit at the feet of our Savior and He will give us rest.
Are you being crushed by the burdens of life? Through Christ, we find the freedom we so desperately crave.