For the Heavily Laden

Another story about crosses

In a certain village in Umbria (Italy), there lived a man who was always bewailing his lot. He was a Christian, and found the weight of his cross too heavy to bear.

One night, before going to sleep, he begged God to let him change his burden.

That night he had a dream; the Lord led him to a warehouse. "Go ahead and change it," he said. The man saw crosses of all sizes and shapes, with the names of their owners. He picked an average size cross – but when he saw the name of an old friend written on it, he left it aside.

Finally, as God had permitted, he chose the smallest cross he could find.

To his surprise, he saw his own name written on it.

-from Paolo Coelho's blog

There are moments in one's life when we feel that we are at our lowest of lows, and that our burden is too much for a single person to bear. We complain about life being unfair and how we deserve better, or wish we had better. These are the perfect moments to carefully reexamine our lives, look a good look around us, marvel at the blessings in our lives that we almost always fail to take cognizance of, and be thankful for the little things that make us happy on a daily basis that we usually tend to take for granted and view as routine. I have learned after numerous rough patches in my life that it is true, our God is indeed a faithful God, and He will never give us more than what we can handle.

1 Corinthians 10:13 (NIV):"No temptation has seized you except what is common to man. And God is faithful; he will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear. But when you are tempted, he will also provide a way out so that you can stand up under it."  

This verse does not expressly say that we will never be given trials beyond what we are capable of handling. It says that he won't let us be tempted beyond what we can bear. But, the interpretation of bible verses are often subjective. You have may a different one but that's my own.

These are also the moments when most of us feel that we have no one else to turn to, so we turn to God. As if for our last resort. Sad as it may sound, that's how most of us are, from passive christians to nominal christians to sunday christians. We start being more earnest in our prayers and becoming devout christians in times of trials & trouble, and then later become complacent when things get better for us. I have to admit, that sadly, I am sometimes guilty of this. :( 

When we feel that we are at our lowest point, we really should take time to look around us. We should open our eyes and widen the periphery of our vision to include the rest of the world, instead of being focused on our own burden. This may be the only time when we will find that instead of the burden that we perceived it to be, it is actually a blessing from God in disguise. This may be the only time when we can embrace what is given to us and celebrate the goodness of the Lord, and how despite our shortcomings and our failures, He still manages to favor us by choosing the path that would enable us to be stronger people, as well as faithful believers, and be thankful that as much as we tend to stray from Him ala prodigal son, He still finds it in His merciful heart to choose just the right trial that will make us better persons/christians and draw us closer to Him. 

2 Corinthians 12:9(NIV): "But he said to me, "My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness." Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ's power may rest on me."

Most of the time I do feel thankful at how trials are there to remind me that I'm only human, and everything that I have now is temporary and can be taken away from me at any given time. Sometimes, we tend to feel invincible when everything is going our way, but we need to be reminded that we are not in total control of our lives, God is. Everything that is happening in our lives is but a minute detail in His grand scheme of things. So we can stop obsessing. It's not all about us. Next time we complain about our cross, we might want to check if we should be thanking and praising Him for it instead. This is something I want to be more conscious about everyday, especially when I start to obsess about trivialities, and it's pretty effective when I do it, I tell myself, "Mariben, it isn't just about you." and I start reminding myself of how blessed I am. That's my little secret, so I always end up thanking instead of complaining, and smiling instead of grumbling. [But of course that's after a few minutes of whining]

Let me share one quote that may be cliche but there's a lot of truth in it. From the french author who became known for his epigram, the more things change, the more they stay the same.

"Some people are always grumbling because roses have thorns. I am thankful that thorns have roses." – Jean-Baptiste Alphonse Kar