Burden Bearing

Occasionally, we all have loved ones, co workers or friends come to us with pressing problems. During those times we may wonder; “Do I just listen?” “Do I offer advice? “Or, refer them to someone else?”

The challenge facing us as Christians is that we are scripturally challenged to: “bear one another’s burdens.” (Gal 6:1) But, how do we do that without becoming overwhelmed ourselves? A few years back, I attended a conference offering teaching on burden bearing which I found helpful.

First, I learned, that bearing burdens is one of the highest callings we have as Christians. This made sense in light of the fact that when the burdens of others are revealed to us; it gives us the opportunity to present the needs of that person back to Jesus in prayer. Our first response to the burdens of others therefore, before we do anything else is to present that person to Jesus in prayer. Secondly, since the purpose of learning the burdens of others is to present that person back to God, it means that we are only meant to carry the burden long enough to know, who the burden belongs to and what the burden is. From there we give it back to God and wait for further direction.

Thirdly, I learned this important warning about holding on to the burdens of others. If we hold on to the burdens of others for too long, two problems can result. The first is we fail to distinguish between other people’s burdens and our own. We end up carrying worry, depression, anger, anxiety and a host of other destructive emotions that belong to someone else and we aren’t even aware of it. Secondly, we end up backlogged with a series of burdens which burn us out and render us ineffective. In such cases we need to ask the Lord to reveal the burdens, tell us who they belong to and then give them back to the Lord in a similar way that a computer does a download from an internet site. We then leave the results to God.

If you know you are a burden bearer, who continually takes on the burdens of others, perhaps unawares, here is a useful sample prayer I learned at the conference: “Lord, I am sensing anxiety right now; whose anxiety is this? Once the name is revealed, you can then pray, “Lord I thank you that you have revealed that person’s anxiety to me. I give that anxiety back to you now and ask you to give this person, your peace.”

The challenge facing many of us today is we don’t know how to handle the burdens of others. Let’s recognize that our first responsibility is to give those burdens back to the Lord. In so doing we partner with Him in bringing healing to our friends, neighbors, family members, communities and the world.

- Terry Harris

Diagnosed with Cerebral Palsy when he was two years old, Terry Harris in the opinion of many experts within the medical and education professions, would never walk, talk, read, write or go to a regular school. It was recommended to his parents that he beplaced in an institution. In 1995 Terry graduated from Brock University with a B.A. in English Literature and obtained a degree in marriage and family therapy in 1999 from Tyndale Seminary.