Matthew 11:28-30
“Come to me, all 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. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light” NIV
Lately I’ve been carrying too many things in my backpack, which leads me to a dilemma… Do I get a bigger bag? Or do I remove the unnecessary things from my current one? A couple of weeks ago, Pastor Ray encouraged us to create a schedule for our ideal week and to try to follow it as a rule of life and to make changes as necessary.
As I was building my schedule, I noticed I had too many things that I could do without. I had not realized how much of burden they are. In other words, I have too many things in my bag.
If my rule of life is to reflect a life of worship not only in the spiritual but the secular, I must remove the things that are unnecessary. As I look at my backpack, I start to see it as a metaphor for my own life in this season. In that I’ve been carrying some things that don’t really belong, because for one, my bag is heavier and I don’t think that in the long-term it will be good for my back. Secondly, I purposely bought this bag to only carry three specific items. The logical answer would be to get a bigger bag, but the real answer is to take out the things that don’t belong. In our rule of life there are things we need to cut out, and unlike the situation of my backpack, I should not go out and buy a bigger bag. Since I am limited by the hours I have in a day, I could try to fit everything in, but I will wind up ignoring the more important things if I take that approach.
As I find myself limited by time, I’ve noticed that in this world, it’s ok to sacrifice many things in order to succeed or accommodate everyone and everything just to stay busy. As a matter of fact, this behavior is celebrated! At times it seems that the heavier the load the better, that if I find myself busy and tired then it’s a sign that I am doing a good job.
But God is calling us to not be like the world, he wants us to find rest in him. To make time in our schedule to rest and if my rule of life is to worship God, then I must clear my “backpack” of the things that don’t belong, to make my load lighter. I need to keep the things that are important in life, and even though many of the things that need to be removed are good things, in this season, there is no room for them. For the benefit of my long-term health not only physical but also mental and spiritual, I need to make my load lighter to better serve God, my wife and this beautiful familia of faith for years to come.
My prayer this week is that even if we find ourselves overwhelmed by life, we can always trust that we can find rest in the Lord. May we remember to rest in God and to learn to clear the things that must be removed from our lives to be able to truly find rest.
Pastor Luis may be in the market for a new backpack, any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.