| The Every Day of Life |
Chapter 19 |
Page 6 |
We need to notice also the precise form of the promise. It is not that the burden shall be lifted away from our shoulder, or that it shall be borne for us, but that we shall be sustained in carrying it ourselves. If it is God’s gift, it is his will that we should keep it, at least for the time. There is some blessing in it for us, and it would not be kindness to us for God to take it way, even at our earnest pleading. It is part of our life, and is essential to our best growth. This is true of duty; however hard it is, to relieve us of it would be to rob us of the opportunity for reaching larger usefulness. It is true of struggle; all nobleness and strength of character come out of conflict. It is true of suffering; it is God’s cleansing fire, and to miss it would be a sore loss to us.
Human love, in its short-sightedness, often seeks to lift away the burdens that seem heavy; but this is not God’s way. He bids us keep our load, and then he gives us grace to bear it. He does not, every time we groan under a burden, run up to us and lift it away. This is often our way, but it is never God’s.
Parents oftentimes think they are showing deep and true affection for their children when they make their tasks and duties seem easy for them; but really they may be doing them irreparable harm, dwarfing their life and marring their future. So all tender friendship is in danger of over helping in the lifting away of loads, taking hindrances out of the way, when it would help far more wisely by letting God’s arrangement of burden alone. That is not the greatest kindness to us, which seeks to make life, easy as possible to us, but that which inspires us to do our best, and so to make something of us. Not a good time, but a God-like character, is the only true aim for a life. Hence, while God never fails us in need, he loves us too well to relieve us of weights, which are essential to our best growth and to the largest fruitfulness of our life. He does not take the load from our shoulder, but instead he puts strength in us to enable us to carry the burden and thus grow strong.
This is the secret of the peace of many a sick-room, where one sees always a smile on the face of the weary sufferer. The pain is not taken away, but the power of Christ is given, and the suffering is endured with patience. It is the secret of the deep, quiet joy we see oftentimes in the home of sorrow. The grief is crushing; but God’s blessed comfort comes in gentle whispers, and the mourner rejoices. The grief is not taken away. The dead is not restored. But the divine love comes into the heart, making it strong to accept the sorrow and say, “Thy will be done.”
“Nothing that hour was altered;
I had still the weight of care;
But I bore it now with gladness
That comes from answered prayer.
Not a grief the soul can fetter.
Nor cloud its vision when
The fear Lord gives the spirit
To breathe to his will, Amen.”
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