Blessed With a Burden
By: Wilma Ditterline

I recently watched the movie Freedom Writers and if you haven’t seen it I highly recommend it. It’s based on a true story where a teacher goes into a rundown school where the faculty just lets the students slide by simply because they haven’t been taught how much they matter. These kids are trouble makers and seem like they don’t care about their education. This teacher thought she could make a difference and she did!

All of that to say there was this specific scene where Erin Gruwell (the teacher) and her father were sitting in a room and her father was talking about her desire to help these kids when he said to her, “you have been blessed with a burden my daughter.”

I have to admit I thought about this sentence for a quite a while and I started wondering something. How many of us see our burdens as blessings? This thought reminded me of my favorite verse of scripture from Galatians 6:2 (NIV) that says “Carry each other’s burdens, and in this way you will fulfill the law of Christ.”

I have realized that when we are allowed to carry another’s burden we have glimpsed the heart of Christ. I mean, obviously we can’t carry everything on our own shoulders, but we are here to be support to our brothers and sisters.

Christ always focused on the hurting and His desire to help them and see them made whole again. If we call ourselves Christians it means we’re trying to be “Christ-like.” So, if we’re trying to be like Him then maybe we should look at how He lived when He was on this earth! I’ve always loved helping people and being there for my hurting friends, but it wasn’t until I heard this quote that I realized being that person may actually be a blessing. At times I get overwhelmed and I wish people would just stop bugging me! But you know…it’s worth it because it’s in those times; the times that I’m weak from taking on others’ problems and concerns that I come close to seeing how Christ felt. Obviously, I can’t take on everything alone because I’m not God! But this must be a small glimpse of what He experiences when we hurt and bring our problems to Him. He loves holding us and caring for us and listening to our concerns whereas I sometimes can’t see past my own feelings of being inconvenienced to really be there for those who come to me. Then again, I’m human and He’s not. But how cool it is to start looking at things this way?!

I go back to the verse in Galatians and wonder what it means to fulfill the law of Christ. Personally, I see the law of Christ as meaning His commands to love one another and love Him (See Matthew 22:36-40 and John 13:34). Maybe this verse is saying that if we really take time to help others and bear what we humanly can of their burdens, then maybe we are showing our love to Him and others in a way that we can’t at any other time. It takes a different kind of love and dedication to do this, quite similar to a portion of the love and dedication He shows us on a daily basis. He’s blessed us with the ability to see His heart through our efforts to care for those close to us. That’s a difficult but beautiful thing.

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