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A Story About The Burden Of The Cross
Monday, April 28th, 2014 10:26am
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In a discussion with my mother this morning we came across the discussion of patience and training.  My mother has dementia and also a unique promise given to her by God.  She is to go through this time of mental trouble for an as yet unspecified period at the end of which she will be healed of her dementia and given back her full mental abilities.  Why?  Because God wants to use her to reach and care for others with the same condition.  But to be most effective God apparently believes that she must first experience what those she will be given will be experiencing.

It's kinda the idea "learn then teach".  IE, you can't teach someone how to drive a car until you've learned yourself.  Well, the same applies to anything else in life.  You can't truly help someone in trouble or trial until you've been there yourself.

Philippians 1:6 (KJV) - "Being confident of this very thing, that he which hath begun a good work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ."

Hebrews 13:20-21 (KJV) - Now the God of peace, that brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus, that great shepherd of the sheep, through the blood of the everlasting covenant, equip you in every good thing to do His will, working in us that which is pleasing in His sight, through Jesus Christ, to whom be the glory forever and ever. Amen."

God will "equip" you.  That means He has to give you what you need.  But how does that work?  Well, let's use the example of the hammer and the nail.  If God wants you to hammer a nail into a wall, what's the first thing you need?  Obviously a hammer.  But how do you get that?  Well, God would have to give it to you.  But then what?  If you've never had a hammer before, will you know how to use it?  No.  Can you sorta "learn on the job"?  Sure, but as with anyone who's seen a 3 year old with a hammer, it's pretty easy to see that you'll end up doing more harm than good without proper training.

So before God can give you that hammer to drive the nail he wants you to drive, He must first train you on how to use that hammer before it will be given to you to use for His purposes.  Only after that training is complete in its fullest can you hope to do the job of hammering that nail properly, both straight into the wood, and without collateral damage to the nail or other items around it.  The same is true with our training for this life.  There are some things that we can learn quickly, and some that require "time in rank" as the military says it.  IE, you need a certain amount of time at your current level before you'll be ready to take on the responsibilities of the next.

Philippians 2:13 (KJV) - "For it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure."

But what about praying that God shorten the training time?  Sure, I fully encourage that, with one caveat.  If you wish the training shorted, you must ask God to give you wisdom, understanding, and teach you quickly.  One word of warning though.  Depending on what that item is, you may not actually wish God to speed up the training, because some things must be learned with the passing of time, and not grasped immediately.

It's like my mom's dementia.  People going through that go down slowly, their minds gradually slipping away to nothing.  As such mom must in turn go down slowly in order to experience everything there is to know about it, including the fear, the anger, the frustration, memory loss, sleep loss, health issues, confusion, disorientation, and so much more.  You can't truly relate to someone else going through the same issues until you've been there yourself in its fullest.

Think of it like this.  A person comes into your business and wants to hire on as a delivery driver.  You ask them, "Do you have a driver's license?" to which they reply, "Yeah, just got it five minutes ago from the secretary of state!"  Would you give them to the keys to a delivery truck?  Or even a company car?  NO!  Well, if you were smart you'd say no.  Why?  Because they need experience, which they clearly don't have, before they'll be a good enough driver to trust with such a responsibility.

The same is true with your Christian walk.  You can't truly and properly help someone with the problem they're experiencing until you've been there yourself.  Because only through experience, some of which is long and arduous, can you properly understand their situation.

2 Corinthians 1:3-4 (KJV) - "Blessed be God, even the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies, and the God of all comfort; Who comforteth us in all our tribulation, that we may be able to comfort them which are in any trouble, by the comfort wherewith we ourselves are comforted of God."

Hebrews 4:15 (KJV) - "For we have not an high priest which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities; but was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin."

Think about that.  Christ was temped in all points.  It means He went through the same things we did so that He could not only prove to us that life can be lived without sin, despite the temptation, but also to gain the experience of our sufferings.  Yes, God knows everything, always has, always will.  He never changes, which means He never gains or loses knowledge.  However, while experience produces knowledge, it also solidifies knowledge that you already have.

Sure, God knows everything, and didn't need to come here to experience anything as He already knew all things, including what we're going through.  But how do you relate to the mountain when you're only a lowly speck of dust?  You can't grow and become a mountain in order to understand the mountain.  Therefore the mountain must become a spec in order for you to be able to understand and relate to him.  If he becomes a spec, you as a spec then can be assured that he too knows and understands what it's like to be a spec, even though he knew it before becoming one.  The thing is, you didn't, so he needed to become small like you so you could understand his greatness.

The same is true with God.  Christ had to become like us so that we could understand, even if only in the tiniest degree, what it meant to be "like God".  Leaders lead by example, and that's what Christ did, in part, while He was here.  Ultimately He came to save you and me, but He also came to lead by example, showing that through the most difficult of sufferings, all things are possible.  So we should never give up, or want out of our trials before they complete their good work in us, because to shorten the training decreases the learning.

If something can be learned quickly, by all means pray that God would speed the learning.  But if things require time to be understood and taken into your being, then merely pray for strength to endure through the entire trial, and complete your "time in rank" so that you truly qualify for the next level of work that God has planned for you.  Because I'd rather suffer for twenty years under the most painful training imaginable and then do world shattering things for the Lord than to suffer for only two minutes and be worthless for the Lord.

So if you find yourself stuck somewhere in your journey of life, stop, look around you, and see what's there.  Is it a sin that's holding you up that needs to be confessed, or is God merely telling you to stop having tunnel vision and to see what's around you.  One example I gave my mother in regards to this topic is like walking through a valley of trial with Christ.  At some point you'll get stopped.  If you do, DO NOT keep to your tunnel vision.  It's good to have the end goal in mind, but life is not about the destination so much as it's about the journey.

If you get stopped somewhere, briefly take your eyes off the goal and look around you.  While you're worried about how away in the distance your goal appears to be, have you considered all the things around you?  Look down.  What color are the flowers at your feet?  What song are the birds singing?  What do the clouds above you look like?  Is there a river nearby?  If so, what is it doing?  Are there any fish in it?  What are the animals around you doing?  If you're in a swamp, and your feet are mired in the clay and you can't move forward, what is around you?  Not just the bad things, but what good things can you see?  The frogs, what kind are they?  The lily pads, are they blooming?  If so, what color are the flowers?

See my point?  Don't have tunnel vision.  Each step in the journey is a learning experience.  Each pound your cross weighs forces your body to grow stronger.  You can't lug a 200lb cross day in and day out and NOT get stronger.  It may seem impossible now, but look at what it'll be when you reach the end.  Do body builders toss around a couple 20lb weights for a few hours once a year and then compete in world championships?  Absolutely not!  They're in the gym up to days a week, five hours a day in some cases working for their goals.

And it's true that Christ said, "My yoke is easy, and my burden is light."  That is because when He is holding the burden, it is light.  When we hold it, it's heavy because we feel its full weight.  But when the weight feels the heaviest, that is the moment we should not ask for it to be lightened, but rather that Christ should carry it for us, because if we lighten the burden, we will come to the problem that this young man below came to, and for the believer, that should never be.



The moral of the story?  We should accept our burdens from God gladly, because only He knows what's ahead in our lives and what we will need to know in order to do all that He has asked of us to do, for the more we do, the greater our reward in heaven, and the greater our crown.  But if we do not learn all that Christ has given us to learn, then it is we who will lose out on all the incredible things Christ wishes to give us.  So, are you willing to bear your full burden in order to gain your full reward, or do you wish to do as this young man did, and lighten the load only to ultimately fail God at the most critical of times?  I for one choose to bear my burden gladly, no matter the cost.
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