The backpacker looked around as the drone of a heavy truck replaced the buzz of bush flies. Stepping back to the side of the dirt road, he raised his thumb. With a squeal of worn brakes and a cloud of dust, the truck rolled to a stop, its motor roaring. A weather-beaten farmer, his wife and their small child eyed him.
“Climb up on the back!” the farmer called to the backpacker.
Forty kilometres down the road, the truck pulled over. “This is as far as I can take you,” its driver called. Looking back at his passenger, he was amazed to see that the backpacker still had the heavy pack on his back.
“You haven’t carried that since I picked you up?” he asked.
“Well,” said the backpacker, “You were good enough to give me a lift – the least I could do was carry my own load.”
Just a story? Perhaps. But there’s no denying that many of us carry burdens that we don’t need to carry. Burdens of anxiety. Burdens of condemnation and guilt. Heavy loads that get heavier as the years go by.
Jesus Christ carried our burdens at Calvary. On the cross he bore our guilt and paid the penalty for our sins. Why then do we insist on shouldering them? We wearily travel the road of life weighted down, when we could be resting in the finished work of the Cross.
Having done that, resist the temptation to shoulder them again. There are enough legitimate weights of responsibility for us to carry in our roles as fathers, mothers and citizens, without making life harder.
Remember that Jesus Christ bore your burdens – only pride, self-pity or lack of understanding will make you want to continue carrying them.
And, like the backpacker who rode on the truck without resting, that simply doesn’t make sense.