I remember many years ago seeing the Atlas statue where a very muscular male was portrayed with the world on his shoulders. There are people all around us who, in fact, feel like they are carrying the world around on their shoulders. The figure may be telling us that our burdens, the burdens of our world, would be easier to bear if we got ourselves in better shape. The other way to deal with them is to lighten or remove our burdens. There are too many of us that have a hard time putting one burden down before we take up another. The accumulation of these burdens take their toll both physically, mentally and spiritually. The burdens referred to include: financial, family, work, school, social, religious, etc.
There are some burdens that we have to carry; without them we would not be who we are. Gilbert K. Chesterton quipped, “Do not free a camel of the burden of his hump; you may be freeing him from being a camel.”
In an excerpt from a book by Dr. Srikumar Rao, he described how some of us have a difficult time “Letting go.” Every little annoyance we come upon in life seems to get stuck right in the middle of our craw. Our ‘backpacks’ are chock full of former complaints, irritating personality traits of those we live with, as well as those we work around, and we are weighed down and bent over from the weight thereof.
There are some justifications for burdening ourselves with heavy loads. The kind of heavy load such as our military service personnel who are in combat zones. They carry 50 to 80 pounds of protective gear around with them every day. Even though they may sweat and find the gear tiresome, they realize that it might save their lives. Many of them also carry around the stress and burden of knowing that at any minute their lives could be snuffed out by a roadside bomb or a sniper. They worry about their families or girlfriends back home, what their going to do when they are discharged, etc. These are heavy burdens, to say the least, and may God bless them for their willingness to take upon them this yoke to ensure our freedom. Very few of us can justify carrying around burdens that are no comparison to theirs.
The less weight, both physical and mental, that we pack around with us, the happier we will feel. Those who have survived the ‘mental burden’ trip will testify that a mental burden is much heavier to bear than most physical burdens. For years, I was responsible for many staff employees as an administrator at a University. One woman employee had a very difficult time with her coworkers; almost everything they did was an irritation to her. One day I asked her about her family and the first thing she did was to berate her husband for not being the man she thought she married. Then she began on her children who were disobedient and unwilling to help with household chores. She lamented that her whole life was burdened by selfish and incompetent people from the time she awoke in the morning until she went to bed at night. Her selfimposed burdens were written in her whole demeanor. She looked physically worn out and the mental stress was imaged as lines drawn in her face.
In a work setting, I couldn’t tell her how her burdens may be lifted by relying on the Lord and His promise to all, though I wanted to. Her response may have been less than appreciated, let alone accepted.
To understand what the Lord has done for us may not be an easy thing and some of us never really come to the full light of that knowledge until we have experienced it in our lives. Many of us seem to stand in the shadow, only catching a glimpse of His power from time to time. The scriptures tell us that now, ‘We see through the glass darkly but then we will see clearly.’ The Lord has plead with us to “Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls.” (Matthew 11:29–30) Corrie Ten Boom stated that “Any concern too small to be turned into a prayer is too small to be made into a burden.”
If we could learn to escape our burdens even one day a week, it would be a significant relief. Weeks may seem long but the Sabbath is every seventh day, “Thus saith the Lord; Take heed to yourselves, and bear no burden on the sabbath day.” ( Jeremiah 17:21)
It is true that the sabbath day was designed to be a day of rest from all our burdens, both physical and mental. When we partake of the Sacrament we should unload not only our indiscretions but our load of mental irritations as well. Catherine Ponder stated that: “When you hold resentment toward another, you are bound to that person or condition by an emotional link that is stronger than steel. Forgiveness is the only way to dissolve that link and get free.” The following Poem By Marguerite Stewart describes how we can relieve some of our burdens through forgiveness:
When I went to the door, at the whisper of knocking, I saw Simeon Gantner’s daughter, Kathleen, standing
There, in her shawl and her shame, sent to ask “Forgiveness Flour” for her bread. “Forgiveness Flour,”
We call it in our corner. If one has erred, one
Is sent to ask for flour of his neighbors. If they loan it
To him, that means he can stay, but if they refuse, he had Best take himself off. I looked at Kathleen…
What a jewel of a daughter, though not much like her Father, more’s the pity. “I’ll give you flour,” I said,
and went to measure it. Measuring was the rub.
If I gave too much, neighbors would think I made sin easy, but if I gave too little, they would label me “close.”
While I stood measuring, Joel, my husband
came in from the mill, a great bag of flour on his shoulder, and seeing her there, shrinking in the
doorway, he tossed the bag at her feet. “Here, take
all of it.” And so she had flour for many loaves,
while I stood measuring.
Forgiveness should not be measured, but rather given freely, and when done so, the burden of feeling wronged will be lifted in totality.
We should try to conjure up a mental image of ourselves as the Atlas statue mentioned above, carrying the world on our shoulders while we are sitting in sacrament service. Then we should just kind of bend down and let that world of care roll off our shoulders, letting all those accumulated irritations by family and coworkers just go away. Then, we should ask for forgiveness for our intolerance and lack of patient understanding of our loved ones and those we serve with. His yoke is light and our yoke can be lightened. Take the world off our backs and place it on His and then we will enjoy the freedom and peace that He has promised.