Bearing each other's burdens

I can't believe that we are already at the end of Galatians!  This has been a super crazy and awesome season for me with Jesus....really finding His heart on some controversial subjects in the church culture today...really rediscovering His heart on things that I had once learned but had stopped walking in...really pressing in to His embrace and finding it to be sufficient for my every need.  It has been hard to walk through these verses and examine my heart, my beliefs and then say willingly, "Lord change what I have gotten wrong here."  But its been so good too!

This week, we are looking at Galatians chapter 6.  There is SO MUCH GOOD STUFF in here, but I'm feeling one part jump out and so that's what I am going to elaborate on.  There's plenty more here if you want to chime in though.  You know I love to hear your heart!

Verse 2

"Bear one another's burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ."

Bear one another's burdens.  I am just struck by the simplicity yet complexity of this command.  By bearing your burden, I fulfill the law of Christ???  Wowza!  That's kinda big, dontcha think?  So how do we bear each other's burdens?  

I think it can be big or it can be small.  I think it will look different on each one of us.  Our individual giftings will affect the exact manifestation of this, but its got the image of me carrying this crazy heavy load on my shoulders, and you helping me.  

I think of my friend that comes over to hang out with me on Wednesdays with a giant bag full of the weeks laundry that she tosses over the shoulder of her tiny frame and then leans into it and manages to somehow get up my stairs.  That's a burden.  A weight.  Something we carry, sometimes we know it's there, sometimes we aren't even aware that we are leaning and struggling.  But it's there.  

Bearing that burden with me has the imagery that as I carry that heavy load, you come alongside me and bear up under it.  You put your shoulder next to mine and help me carry the load to where it needs to go.  It does not change the weight of the burden.  The only difference is that we carry it together and the weight is physically lighter because I am not alone.  And we carry it to Jesus, because thats where our burdens belong.  As you walk with me, even though you're carrying this heavy thing with me, we BOTH draw closer to the Lord because of it.

What does this mean exactly?  Well, its hard to say because we need to constantly be checking with the Holy Spirit and asking Him because it will change based on the situation.  Yes, we are back to that point again.  You HAVE to be full of the Spirit in order to even bear another's burdens.  We need His power for everything.  

But I think usually it means that we do less talking and more listening when people are in pain.  It's so easy to listen to a friend recount their health troubles and spout off dietary changes that would help.  It's easy to listen to a friend with relationship problems and tell her to dump the loser.  It's easy to listen to problems and pop out with your answer for them.  Don't.  Listen first.  Really ask Jesus to help you FEEL what they are going through.  Pray.  Then maybe speak.  Maybe.  

When I was very sick about three years ago, I had the sweetest church body come alongside me and my family and bear that with us.  Women brought over dinner, so my poor family could eat something that wasn't from the frozen section at Walmart.  People prayed for me.  I remember sweet women bringing their kids over to my house to let their kids play with my kids because my kids were SO BORED (I was having heart problems and was basically a lump of a mommy).  One girl came over and cleaned my bathrooms.  BATHROOMS.  Like toilets, people.  I will never ever forget that.  One woman wrote me hand written encouragement cards.  How beautiful and rare is it to receive a card in the mail these days, huh?  And then, when it was all over and the pain was now coming from our hospital bills, sweet people dropped of anonymous gifts of money in our mailbox to help bear the burden of the debt that we were in (heart cath's are expensive!).  

Each person that bore our burden with us did it differently.  I think the Holy Spirit uses the gifts He has given us to make this come alive in our lives differently.  The woman who wrote those cards, definitely has the gift of encouragement rocking in her life.  The one who cleaned my toilets, gift of helps man!  And mercy!  Cause those were toilets she was cleaning!!!  And my son was only 3!  You get the picture though, right?  I can't tell you what it will look like exactly for you to bear the burdens of those around you but I CAN tell you, it will be a working, an outflow of the Spirits power in your life.  

I think verse 3-4 are interesting to note.  

"If anyone thinks himself to be something, when he is nothing, he deceives himself.  But let each one examine his own works...

That at first seemed to be kind of out of nowhere.  Like Paul is wrapping things up here and needs to get all these statements in before he runs out of room on the scroll.  But actually, I don't think so.  I think he is saying to get in there.  Shoulder the load.  Put your shoulder to the shoulder of the person who is weighted down and really bear it with them.  But as you stoop down and get under the strain of it, it will be easy to become short tempered and want to be done.  (Have you ever helped someone move???)  As you get shoulder to shoulder, in such close proximity, you WILL see the imperfections in the person you are helping, and there is the tendency to then pick at the character of that person.  I feel like this is in here because Paul, and ultimately Jesus, wants us to remember to keep it all about HIM.  Don't examine the imperfections of the person you are coming alongside.  If you need to examine anyone other than Jesus, let it be yourself.  Let His truth affect you, and leave the correcting of the little things you might see in that other person to Jesus.  Now, I'm not talking about straight up sin issues.  Love will not ignore telling a person when they are in sin.  I'm talking about the little stuff.  The stuff that isn't a salvation issue.  I mean, hey, these people could have criticized me for my messy house, for my rowdy kids.  Honestly, there were times when my faith was weak and I was so tired of going through the pain and limitations of it all.  Someone could have told me that I wasn't having enough faith and trust.  And they would have been RIGHT!  But instead, they prayed.  They bore the load.  And God increased my faith.  Try to remember that when we are bearing someone else's load, they are going through a difficult time.  It's hard.  Don't judge.  Just love.  AND PRAY.  And then do what Jesus says to.  And it will be ALL GOOD!

Man, I hope I'm making sense here.  I have been so blessed by people bearing me up in my life, and I hope and pray that I get to return that.  I love that we have the body of Christ, spread out though we may be.  Prayer and love and bearing one another's burdens.....it lightens everything and just makes me feel like singing praise to Jesus!!!!  That's some joy right there!  Reminds me of last Thursday night's Hill Song concert at the Red Rocks...almost 10,000 people praising Him.....I cannot wait for Heaven where this is what we DO!

Walking with Scars

Tonight I am sitting here listening to the storm that finally decided to roll through while I think about Galatians 5:16-26.  All day this storm has teased me.  Have you ever just felt the NEED for a good rain.  I have felt my soul aching to have the thoughts that roll through my head washed away.  I have watched the sky darken in the distance and the wind pick up, only to peter out into nothing.  Twice, it began to sprinkle.  But stopped short of the deluge I was so wishing for.  As the kids and I walked out of Costco, I could SMELL the rain.  Like, I stopped them and made them close their eyes and sniff.  We blocked the traffic of people trying to get their receipts checked so they can go home, but I didn't care.  And the kids faces lit up.  They could smell it too!!!!!!!!  We were all just a little bit too giddy, if I can be honest.  We walked out into a few drops of rain....and then that was it.  I went back to checking the sky between dishes and dinner making and vacuuming and Bible story reading.  Nothing.

Then the sun went down, the wind picked up, and now I can hear it pouring.  It's raining enough to make an impact on my soul even if I can't see it.

My heart has been heavy today.  Ever had that kind of day?  Nothing is really any heavier than yesterday.  But it just feels heavy.  There IS some stuff going on, in all honesty, but nothing that I have any reason to be concerned with.  I mean, my Jesus is on the throne.  He is in charge and I am safe.  He is also loving and faithful and His banner over me is LOVE.  I BELONG.  I am not forsaken.  I am treasured and adored apart from my performance and perceived self-worth.  I am beloved in spite of my epic failures.  I am wanted even though He sees all the way into my yuck.  I know these things are true.  And I know that because they are true, nothing is really that big of a deal.  For reals.  I am not just saying that.  But, also for reals, I'm kinda not feeling it.  Knowledge and feelings don't always come together in my head.  And so my soul waits for a deluge in the form of an actual rain storm to rinse away the blah of my soul today.

But oh!  This is the cry of my heart!  I need a deluge not for my skin and my physical senses, but for my soul.  I need the Holy Spirit to pour over me.  My soul won't be overwhelmed by a darkening of the sky, by the smell of it, by a small sprinkling.  My soul needs to poured over by His Spirit!  Like NEEDS it.  I am so verse 17 way more often than I want to admit to.  There is such a war in me.  I don't really struggle (too much anyway) with wanting to be nice to people or do "the right thing"....my struggle is uglier than that.  I struggle with rejection. I have been hurt in my past.  In the not so distance past.  Today.  And I am tired of trying to walk through life pretending that I haven't.  Jesus has healed me FOR SURE.  And I am so thankful for that.  His blood is the most precious thing in the universe and I am so thankful that He held out His hands to me and welcomed me in.  But a serious wound that has been healed will leave a scar.  And I have had some serious wounds.  Which means I have some scars.  And it's okay to have scars.

Those of us that have born babes can attest.  Scars, stretch marks, they are just part of the territory.  You can spend all of your energy trying to return your body to the shape and size that it once was, but its mostly futile.  And really, why do we want to go back?  Aren't our precious little babes worth the rearranging of our bodies?

I feel like I spend way too much time trying to return my soul's figure to what I think in my mind it should look like (which, in keeping with the post baby body analogy, is probably not even realistic anyway).  Am I making any sense at all here?  Why am I trying to fight against my scars and stretch marks and pretend they don't exist???  I am who I am.  Each thing I have been through, regardless of the pain, has been allowed by a loving Father and has shaped me into who I am.  And it's not like I think I am so great or anything, just that I am who I am.  God has put me together exactly like He has and He wants to use me like this.  Scars and all.  They are reminders of who I used to be.  Reminders of who I so easily become when I am not mindful of Jesus and all that He has done on my behalf.  Reminders of who I am when I am not living full of His Spirit.

And I need to see what I look like when I don't walk in His Spirit.

Verse 25 kinda rocked me today.  If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit.  I am no Bible scholar but it seems to me like these are separate and distinct.  I can be saved (living in the Spirit...total gift from Jesus to me) but it is different and distinct to be WALKING in the Spirit.  OUCH.  So I can be totally saved and totally a loser.  Bummer.  A very large bummer.

But I love that Jesus didn't dangle impossible demands over me and say there ya go, Jo.  Have fun with that.

NO WAY!

He left me with a Helper! (John 14)  I am not alone in this walk.  And because of His Spirit, I can walk free of legalism AND free from the bondage of the junk in verses 19-21.  Anybody out there ever annoyed at some of the stuff in that list?  Jealousies, selfish ambitions, envy....really????? Right next to murder and all that junk?  YIKES!  Not that I've ever been jealous or selfish or envious or anything....

But I have the power to leave that behind me and walk in the Spirit and bear fruit FOR HIS GLORY.  I just have to choose it every. single. day.

But the way that I choose it is to wait on Him (Acts 1:8), and to askHim to hook me up! (Luke 11:13)   Ask to be filled.  BEG to be filled.  Like the rain storm I so craved all day, I will not be satisfied with the signs that it's going to happen.  I won't be satisfied with a sprinkling.  I have to wait and ask until I receive the deluge that overwhelms my soul and empowers me to walk and not faint or grow weary (I'm not quite sure what running looks like yet, Im still just working on walking without fainting).  Cool thing is, He doesn't tease me like my storm today did.  He is just waiting to fill my hands with His good gifts.  I just have to ask.  I have to get my eyes off of my scars, off of my mistakes, off of the mistakes and hurts of others, and ASK....BEG.

And the times when I have actually gotten this right, and I have sat at His feet, He really has done cool stuff.  He really has born fruit that brought HIS NAME glory.  And it was beautiful.  Pray for me, okay?  I really want to sit down in His lap and watch Him make me a conduit of His love, joy, peace, long-suffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.  Cause I sure can't manufacture those on my own!  But when Im empty of me and full of Him....well, I cant wait to see what that might look like.