Perseverance

Have you felt like you have held a burden for too long?

Maybe to where it feels like you continually add weight to the burden day by day, year by year?

The truth is.

For the majority of us.

We are in your shoes.

We are all faced with this struggle, this burden, whether we choose to admit it or not.

It is a silent monster that we have to face every single day in the mirror when we start our day, throughout the day and when we finally call it a night.

This burden can be a form of addiction.

An addiction in its most pure form.

An addiction to acceptance.

An addiction to social media.

An addiction to social justice.

Even an addiction to our health.

For some reason, as a culture, we seem to want to carry the heaviest burden possible in order to prove something to the world.

We want to prove that we are capable.

We want to prove that we have the heaviest burned to our community.

Like it is an achievement ribbon to be the sickest person in the room or something.

Which makes zero sense.

In Scripture, Christ doesn't go to the disciples and say — pick up the heaviest yoke possible to make my burden unbearable.

In fact, he say's the exact opposite.

My yoke is easy and my burden is light. (Matthew 11)

And yet, no matter how many times I read that passage, I sit right where you are and struggle with my own burden.

My own championing of how heavy of a load I can carry.

As if I have to prove my worth to everyone I encounter.

That is until I read this passage.

"If in this place our divine Master requires His disciples to deny themselves and carry His cross after Him, elsewhere He promises solemnly to give them not only life everlasting but a hundredfold all things they deny themselves to please Him in this life. He further promises to ease the burden of His cross so as to lighten it; for He not only says that His yoke is sweet but adds that His burden is light. If then we do not experience the sweetness of Christ's yoke nor the lightness of the burden of the cross, it must be because we have not yet made the denial of our will and completely given up our human outlook so as to consider things in the light of faith."

If then we do not experience the sweetness (lightness) of Christ's yoke nor the lightness of the burden of the cross...

Sound familiar?

To me, it is blatantly obvious that for all of us who carry our burdens, the need for surrender is ever more prevalent.

CS Lewis tell us "God does not judge us as if we have no difficulties to over comes."

He understands that our lives will be filled with challenges.

But that is not the point to be exemplified.

The point is what happens when you encounter the difficulties?

For many of us, we collapse under the burden.

We enter a stage of doom and gloom and think that if our load crushes us then we are a martyr for our cause.

However — I would challenge you on that.

This is a weakness of spirit.

CS Lewis further states that before you can be cured (of your burden), you must want to be cured."

A question I constantly ask myself.

"Do I really want to be cured?"

If the answer is yes, then the next question is — am I willing to put in the discipline, am I willing to pay the price of perseverance for being cured?

For me — the answers is always a YES! typically followed by an immediate failure.

But that is okay.

That is the point.

God works in mysterious ways and his timeline doesn't always match up with the instant gratification world we live in.

CS Lewis further guides us in this...

"Even when you have done so, it may seem to you for a long time that no help, or less help then you need, is being given. Never mind. After each failure, ask forgiveness, pick yourself up and try again. Very often what God first help us towards is not the virtue itself but just this power of always trying again. For however important it may be, this process trains us in habits of the soul which are more important still. It cures our illusions about ourselves and teaches us to depend on God."

The focus is on surrendering your burden.

The focus is on creating a steadfast spirit.

The focus is on the discipline of working day by day to surrender this burden and develop the strength to carry your cross.

You will fail.

That is beside the point.

The question is, do you persevere through the failure and dust off your knees, and start again.

Is the addiction your identity?

Will you continue to champion your crushing burden?

Or.

Will you surrender your burden and persevere in developing a steadfast spirit.

The choice is yours.