Reflections: Sharing the Burden

What are you carrying around?

Read Matthew 11: 25-30

Last week I was in Nicaragua visiting our friends at the el Porvenir coffee cooperative. One of the things we did was help the workers spread compost on the coffee plants.

We carried the compost into the field in big buckets. At first, they didn’t seem to be that heavy. But the longer and farther we carried them the heavier they got. But at el Porvenir they have a rule that the workers always worked in pairs or teams—so they could pass the heavy bucket back and forth between them so that it didn’t get too heavy for one person.

Jesus talked about something like this in the Gospel of Matthew. Jesus said, “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest." In this passage, Jesus is talking about us sharing our burdens with God -like all the things that we are mad about, or sad about, or worried about, or those things that we just think we can’t handle or do by ourselves. The longer we carry things the heavier it gets. Jesus said to share our burdens with God. God is always with us - waiting to take a turn carrying our buckets when they get too heavy.