stress fractures

I can barely imagine sliding down an iced over chute at ninty miles an hour, but watching the luge competition at the Olympics makes for great vicarious entertainment...until there is a crash - someone loses control and they are at the mercy of gravity, momentum, and stationary objects. For the most part the luge is a controlled slide ... the athlete in 'complete' control.

I suppose many of our lives are similar. I live most of the time thinking I am in control - at least I seem to be. I visited with a friend recently who made me think about this a little deeper. When one is under treatment for some disease, often the medication that is an attempt to cure the condition or alleviate the symptoms has other manifestations that are an irritation - at least. It is not our busy schedule that causes the stress in our lives; it is not that we are not able to accomplish our goals at a satisfactory pace or with quality results; - it is the the realization that we cannot control the outcome or the order in which it occurs. Often our very thoughts become the webs that entangle and paralyze our lives - deceptive thoughts of our own inadequacy or ineffectiveness. These thoughts are themselves lies, placed there by the one who rules this world.

Often our attempts to paddle out of the muck only muddy the water and splash others in the canoe...when the solution to getting out of our quandary is to remove some of the weight from the canoe and allow it to float out of the muskeg. Oh yes, it is that simple. Lay your burdens down at the feet of Jesus. He will carry your burdens. "For my yoke is easy and my burdens are light." I often forget that if I am yoked to the savior of the world, he is carrying the load - if only I let him. I remember the first hiking trip that Caleb went with me. He was nine, fired up and energetic. Towards the end of the first day I was beginning to think I'd made a mistake in bringing him. He had grown weary under the weight of his pack had it not been for a cute college girl who dropped back and continually encouraged him, he might still be somewhere along Archuleta creek. That night while he was asleep, I removed most of the weight from his pack and carried it myself. The next day was so much better for him (and for me) and I did not tell of this for probably ten years.
Stress fractures our lives in so many ways. It renders us helpless, defeated, depressed, and powerless. If only we'd remember that the king of all creation will carry our burdens, if only we would lay them down ... and walk away. Too often Christians lay there burdens at the foot of the cross, only to pick them back up when they leave. Lay them down ... and walk away.