Let’s Be Pep-Talkers AND Burden-Bearers
Based on my social media newsfeed, I know there are many who are suffering. It’s easy to respond to a “sufferer’s” FB comment with cliches like: “Praying for you.” Or, with scriptures like: “When we are weak, He is strong” or “All things work together for good.” Please don’t misunderstand me: Those words are true. Pep-talking cliches and scriptures aren’t wrong. They’re often just not enough.
As someone who has been on the sending AND receiving end of a lot of “let go and let God” and “sometimes God shuts a door and opens a window” pep talks, sometimes it can feel a little lack-luster. Especially if that’s all we’re getting from people. Jesus was great at reading a room. He could spot hurt and doubt and fear and He knew just when someone needed a tangible touch of grace. Jesus offered His presence and comfort, but He also met people’s needs right where they were at. He served them, fed them and healed them.
It’s often easier to promise someone a happy ending than to accompany them on their journey. As our friendships are deepened, new levels of openness can give many opportunities for becoming “soul” brothers and sisters AND being burden-removing friends to them.
Do we bear one another’s burdens well? Or do we spend most of our time trying to convince them that it’s not really that heavy or that they don’t have that much further to carry it? We believe God calls us to a life of dependence on Him, but shouldn’t we also believe He calls us to a life of interdependence with each other as the body of Christ?
I’ve been on the giving and receiving end of burden bearers — helping take care of children while they recuperate from an illness, helping pack up friends’ homes when they’re under a crunch to get moved, making meals for funerals, taking food to a caregiver so they don’t have to think about cooking on top of all their other responsbilities, taking a friend out to dinner who needs “presence”. And, I’ve been on the receiving end of those who were my burden bearers. I needed to know that God was close. That Jesus wasn’t far removed but instead cared that I couldn’t go grocery shopping without leaving my husband. A God who understood that medical bills and prescriptions are costly and sometimes our bank account didn’t stretch far enough. I needed a God who gave me moral and physical support. And God did show up for me through God’s people who lifted us in prayer, who sat with me through the tears, who reached out to say, “How can we help you in this?”
Sometimes we need to do more than just an offer to pray. Not because prayer isn’t powerful or necessary, because it is. But sometimes after we’ve prayed, God is asking us to move. To invest more than our words, to invest our time, our energy, our gifts, and our presence. He’s calling us to get close, not just to Him but to each other. We can be the answer to someone’s prayers. For goodness sake, don’t stop being great cheerleaders and pep-talkers, but let’s be the tangible touch that shows what Jesus meant when He said: “I’m here with you” and meant it.
“Bear one another’s burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ.” Galatians 6:2