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!