last week\u2019s post<\/a>). It\u2019s the same lesson the elder brother needed to learn as he rattled off to his father all the faults of his younger and prodigal brother (Luke 15:25-32). It\u2019s the same lesson every codependent Christian needs to learn. It\u2019s the exhortation to be receptive rather than restless and reactive, to recognize our own need of salvation before rushing off to save others. In the Beatitudes, Jesus challenges us to be poor in spirit, meek, vulnerable, and receptive before God. It\u2019s so easy focus our energy and attention on helping or serving (or fixing) other people. It\u2019s so hard to seek and receive the mercy and healing that we ourselves need.<\/p>\n\n\n\nThere are many misguided Christians who have believed from a young age that being a good Christian means always putting others first. Sally hasn\u2019t slept a full night for fifteen years, never exercises, and struggles to find time to pray. She can\u2019t remember the last time she and her husband just went and did something fun together. She is just too busy caring for her children, volunteering at church, helping babysit the neighbor\u2019s kids\u2026 She doesn\u2019t want to be \u201cselfish.\u201d Fred fixes everyone\u2019s cars and homes for them. This year alone he gave up five weekends and four weeknights to help people with various fix-it projects. He is particularly sensitive when his wife nags him about their own car problems, or the bathroom project that he started three years ago and still hasn\u2019t finished. You get the idea. There are many among us who eagerly rush into other people’s problems, happily leaving behind our own mess – not just that of our home but that of our heart as well.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Remember the two greatest commandments: (1) Love God with\nall your heart and mind and soul and strength; (2) Love your neighbor as\nyourself.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Notice that Jesus does not say \u201cmore than yourself\u201d but \u201cas\nyourself.\u201d There is a great medieval axiom nemo\ndat quod non habet<\/em> which has a very technical translation: \u201cA thing can\u2019t\ngive what it ain\u2019t got.\u201d Only if we are regularly receiving love and grace can\nwe be capable of giving it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\u201cAlways putting others first\u201d is a lie against our human nature. It will suck us dry, leaving us empty, bitter, and resentful \u2013 much like the elder brother in Luke 15. We can try to hide our hurt, but it will keep oozing out.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But…But…aren\u2019t we called to love and serve others? Of course. However, authentic love and service are an overflowing of God\u2019s grace. They are the good fruit that emerges because we are abiding on the vine with Jesus (John 15:1-8). God fills. God blesses. God bears fruit. We receive. We cooperate. We trust and abide.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The saints have all learned this lesson. Consider Mother\nTeresa of Calcutta. She mightily served the poorest of the poor, helping them\nbear their burdens. Nevertheless, every single afternoon she and her fellow\nsisters dropped everything they were doing and went to the chapel to spend an\nhour with Jesus. Her congregation, the Missionaries of Charity, continue that\npractice today, trusting God to provide for others while they allow themselves\nto be filled spiritually.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Let\u2019s return to Galatians 6. Paul urges the Galatians to have a \u201cspirit of gentleness\u201d when they seek to correct others or to help them bear their burdens. The Greek word for \u201cgentleness\u201d is also listed in the previous chapter as one of the fruits of the Holy Spirit: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness<\/u>, and self-control. These are not fruits we can produce on our own. They come forth when the Holy Spirit fills us and works through us.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cGentleness\u201d also means \u201cmeekness\u201d \u2013 the same Greek word used by Jesus in the Beatitudes. Blessed are the meek. Blessed are the vulnerable who are willing to let their own woundedness be touched. It is a fear of vulnerability, I think, that leads so many \u201cdo-gooders\u201d to jump in and rescue the problems of others, even at great cost to themselves. It helps them forget their own misery. It feels less painful and scary than facing their own brokenness and receiving love.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Finally, if we study the Greek words for \u201cburdens\u201d and \u201cloads,\u201d it is worth noting that the word for \u201cload\u201d is the same one used by Jesus when he urges us to lay down our heavy burdens and take his yoke upon us (Matthew 11:29-30). His load is light. That is saying something, since his load is the Cross! But it\u2019s not the Cross that crushes us. It\u2019s all the other burdens we heap upon ourselves, all the lies of \u201cI have to\u2026or else\u2026<\/em>\u201d that we agree to strap upon our shoulders. We can be unburdened of the crushing weights we have heaped upon ourselves. They are not ours to bear. We can allow Jesus to bless and heal us, and gently place his Cross upon our shoulders. His load is light.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"In the first five verses of Galatians 6, the apostle Paul urges us to \u201cbear one another\u2019s burdens.\u201d Then he abruptly offers the opposite observation: \u201ceach shall bear his own load.\u201d Normally Paul puzzles us with his patented run-on sentences. Here, however, his words are brief, but baffling. They offer us a paradox, a seeming … <\/p>\n
Continue reading “Burdens and Loads”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1315,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[57,61,55,54],"tags":[153,148,156,158,154,157,105,155],"class_list":["post-1314","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-healing","category-reception","category-scripture","category-spirituality","tag-beatitudes","tag-codependency","tag-courage","tag-galatians","tag-meekness","tag-paul","tag-receptivity","tag-vulnerability"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"http:\/\/www.abideinlove.com\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/03\/Burdens.png","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.abideinlove.com\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1314","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.abideinlove.com\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.abideinlove.com\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.abideinlove.com\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.abideinlove.com\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1314"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/www.abideinlove.com\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1314\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1316,"href":"http:\/\/www.abideinlove.com\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1314\/revisions\/1316"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.abideinlove.com\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/1315"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.abideinlove.com\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1314"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.abideinlove.com\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1314"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.abideinlove.com\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1314"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}