Sharing the Load

I pray that you and yours are well and want to thank you for your prayers for me. It’s so important in this Christian life to remember to pray for others; to share their burdens; to lighten one another's loads by a kind word or text or a prayer to God. Sometimes the burdens we bear and the struggles we face can be overwhelming; can take so much thought and energy that we simply don’t have the ability to pray.

Knowing that others are sharing our burdens and doing the praying on our behalf not only encourages us, but opens the way for the power and the hand of God to enter into our lives. This came home to me recently while talking with a friend who nearly crushed his hand when he was changing a flat tire on his car. He was making good progress, but the jack slipped and his hand got caught underneath the wheel. He was rushed to the hospital where he had emergency surgery to repair his hand. His hand was saved, but it would involve several more surgeries and a lot of hospital time.

As I spoke with him and prayed with him, he told me how much he appreciated my calls and visit. He told me he hadn’t been able to pray in the pain and during the process of recovery and therapy, which was a problem, he reminded me, since he was a pastor. I knew what he meant, having experienced similar times of struggle when I had a hard time praying. I reminded him of St. Paul’s understanding about our need to share one another’s burdens and we decided that this was very practical advice, since there are times when our burdens make it too difficult for us to go it alone. And more than that, prayer opens the way for God to intervene into our lives and into the lives of the people we are praying for.

So thank you, again for your prayers for me in the midst of my struggles and remember that there are people praying for you and willing to share your burdens to make the load a little lighter. Please continue to pray for others and to look for ways to lift their burdens when you can. It will make all of our loads lighter and bring us into the closer presence and power of God.

Happy St. David’s Day (March 1) and I look forward to worshiping God with you and praying together on Saturday night and Sunday morning.