How to take the weight off

It’s the new year and after the holiday celebrations, things start getting heavier (from all the Christmas food we just couldn’t pass up). 2009 is gone, and 2010 is upon us. Surveys say that a majority of Filipinos are optimistic about the year to come. Elections are also just around the corner, and with the choice of a new president usually comes a fresh breath of optimism.

But while we all still feel the holiday cheer, somehow, I do believe that a lot of us carry a heavy load on our shoulders (and this time, I don’t mean the extra pounds from the Christmas queso de bola). A load we will probably carry way into 2010. 

We try to gaze at the future and wonder how things will be. Maybe we worry about our health, finances, how our kids will turn out, whether we will get layed off, broken relationships, strained friendships, and a multitude of situations that we pack on our sack, sling on our back and carry.

We will all have our fair share of problems to carry. The question is how we carry them. There is a contemporary parable of a man carrying a 100 pound sack of his back, walking 30 kilometers from his home to the city. Upon reaching halfway with back bent and sweat running down his body, a driver on a pick-up truck saw him and said, “C,mon fellow hop on!”

The man with the sack jumped on the back of the pick up and the driver headed off to the city. Upon reaching the city, the driver slowed down to drop the man off.  As he looked at the man in his rear view mirror, he was surprised to see the man still carrying the 100 pound sack on his back while riding his pickup. The driver stopped, the man jumped off, and continued to carry the sack on his back to his final destination.

Some of us live our lives in that manner. We carry a huge weight of worry on our back and when someone offers to help lift the burden, we say yes, but continue to carry the load.

If somehow, you are carrying a load into the new year, and you don’t have friends or family to help lift it, God has offered to do that for you. He has made the offer....”Cast your burdens upon me those who are heavy laden. Come to me all of you who are tired and carrying a heavy load. Come to me and I will give you rest.”

There is no magic formula, special fees, or complicated processes to share the burden with God. It only takes a sincere heart telling him, “God, I’m a bit tired, I want to put some of this weight on your shoulders. It is you who can see the future, it is you who knows my path, and it is you who I can trust to show me the way. I’m hopping on your pick up truck, dropping the sack from my back, and you drive, I’ll follow. “

From that point, all you need to do is TRUST.  Your problems won’t go away, but you will know that the God of the universe is now navigating and in due time, things will work out. Maybe not the way you want them to, but better because they will work out the way God wants them to.

Now that the weight on your shoulders has lightened, it’s now time to deal with the weight from the Christmas queso de bola. For that, I don’t recommend praying, I recommend hitting the gym, running a marathon, watching your diet, taking up a sport and sweating it out.

Happy New Year!

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