Burden Bearers

The Word of God in the letter Paul wrote to the Galatian Christians calls us to bear one another's burdens.  (Galatians 6:2). A burden is not carried easily.  It is the kind of thing which not only weighs heavy on our spirit, but it wears us down until there is little energy for living.  If we can imagine the dramatic portrayals of Jesus carrying the heavy cross of execution to the place waiting for it and Him and if we can imagine the kind of exhaustion which caused Him to need another's help, then we can possibly wed that image and our own experience so that we can understand how it might be for some troubled and heavily burdened brother or sister.   

It is not just another who carries such burdens.  There are times in our life when we are the burden bearer in need of someone to help us on the way which must be walked.  Some of us may see ourselves as being able to live alone apart from the care and help of another, but what is really true is that we desperately need a community of people around us.  I have memories of times when the burden being carried was so heavy there was no energy for praying.  In those dark and hard hours, a community of people rose up, or maybe I should say, knelt down to pray in my behalf.  

When someone asks for our prayers or our help, we can never take their request lightly.  Our willingness to be a burden bearer through prayer may be the only reason they are able to make it.  We all live fragile lives.  We are all members of a community of sufferers.  We do need one another.  Within that community there will be moments for being the helper of others as well as moments for being helped by others.  What is carried as a burden may not be taken away, but somehow it is carried better when someone is willing to stand alongside of us.