Carrying Burdens

 

The hardest part of this ‘job’ is not being a mom in Honduras, it is not tolerating the discomforts of a third-world environment, it is not whatever else might come to your mind when you think of missionaries.   The hardest part of my job is seeing the burdens, feeling the burdens of people around me and knowing that, most of the time, my job is to sit and listen and do very little.   

 

Most people we know here have serious burdens weighing them down.  While I see so much hope in almost everyone we meet, that hope is often shadowed dark by the circumstances of life.   Recently, I’ve seen dreams almost shattered by attempted rape.  I’ve seen a desperate search to find a safe place to live by one who literally has nothing.   I’ve seen abuse of power and illegality cause hardship and pain to a young girl.   I’ve seen the dangerous impact one family member’s job choice of narcotrafficking has on the the rest of the family.    

 

These are not strangers who carry these burdens;  these are people close to me.     As believers, we are to bear one another’s burdens when they become more than one can bear alone.   At what cost?   Does another person’s burden completely become my burden?  Does that problem supercede my other responsibilities?    Or, am I simply to help that person take her burden and carry it to God’s throne? 

 

I believe my job needs to be less about taking the burden as my own and more about pointing toward God’s sovereignty.   With such, I realize my own limitations, and I function only in the ‘next step’ and not with the entire burden of someone else on my back.   God can show me what He wants my part to be.  I must be carefully listening with correct motives…  not to save the world, but to offer Christ.

 

I’d love to hear your thoughts on this topic.