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Everybody’s Got Stuff

Imagine if you will, coming into this life and being given a backpack to carry. From the day we are born to the day we die, we'll lug it along.
Our backpack comes with some items prepacked. They are there courtesy of our all-wise, all-knowing, and all-loving God. Our family of origin, genetic makeup, physical appearance, personality, and our talents are some of the things He pre-determines.

As we journey through life we squeeze more things into our backpack. Making choices and the ensuing consequences will be part of our freight. The responsibilities we take on add to our load. Possessions we accumulate and maintain are pushed in there too. And relationships established and fostered are also squirrelled away along with the rest of our stuff. All these and more are contained in the backpack we carry through life.

Because these things are in our backpacks we have been given personal responsibility for them. No one else — not our parents, spouse or boss — own them. They're ours to carry and be accountable for. Likewise we are not responsible for the things that others pack in their backpacks. Each carries his own load.

But there are things in life that are over and above the usual backpack load we all carry. There are the things that occur that we didn't have at the beginning and that we didn't choose. These are our burdens. At the risk of oversimplifying I'd say, for example, having a child is normal backpack stuff. Having a child slowly dying of cancer is a burden. Struggles in marriage are normal backpack stuff. Having a spouse who is persistently abusive or unfaithful is a burden. Getting the chicken pox is backpack stuff. Caring for a spouse with brain damage as a result of a car accident is a burden.

Most burdens are excruciatingly heavy. Some are almost impossible to bear alone. Those carrying them need help, lest the burdens crush them. And that is why we're told to bear one another's burdens (Galatians 6:2).

But I have two questions about all this. The first is, “How many of us can accept that God would let us struggle with soul-crushing burdens?” There are those who teach that God doesn't want us to struggle in life.

Yet the Bible seems to suggest the opposite. Job wrote: “For man is born for trouble, as sparks fly upward ...” (Job 5:7). Jesus said, “In this world you will have trouble” (John 16:33 NIV). The apostles said, “Through many tribulations we must enter the kingdom of God” (Acts 14:22). Paul reframed trials in a positive light when he wrote, “And not only this, but we also exult in our tribulations, knowing that tribulation brings about perseverance …” (Romans 5:3). Finally, James adds, “Brothers, as an example of patience in the face of suffering, take the prophets who spoke in the name of the Lord” (James 5:10 NIV).

As terribly disconcerting and unpopular as it is, suffering, pain, trouble, and hardship are facts of life among fallen humanity in a sin-cursed world. Only in heaven will they be abolished (Revelation 21:4).

That doesn't mean we fold our hands in resignation and do nothing. We're called to be burden-bearers in this world, just as Christ was when He bore our sin-burden. Which leads to the second question: “How much actual burden-bearing are we doing?”

I believe that many people, including Christians, are living their lives in pain, desperation, and isolation. Their burden is heavy but they bear it alone. We may be aware of their plight, but often we're too consumed with the stuff in our own backpacks to help them.

I know that much of the time we can do nothing to physically lift the burdens of those staggering under them. But we are still commanded to lift them spiritually by praying, encouraging, listening, empathizing, and being with them.

When we are tempted to put on our blinders, or only be concerned with our own backpack, or when we want to indulge ourselves by wallowing in a puddle of self-pity remember this: everybody's got stuff. And surrender yourself to be used by God …

Lord, make me an instrument of your peace;
where there is hatred, let me sow love;
when there is injury, pardon;
where there is doubt, faith;
where there is despair, hope;
where there is darkness, light;
and where there is sadness, joy.
Grant that I may not so much seek
to be consoled as to console;
to be understood, as to understand,
to be loved as to love;
for it is in giving that we receive,
it is in pardoning that we are pardoned,
and it is in dying that we are born to eternal life.

~ St. Francis of Assisi

About the Author:  Steve Johnson



Steve Johnson