Bearing Burdens

Our stories are sometimes difficult memories and hard to tell narratives.  It is not that life is not good and full of good things, but that they are real stories.  Unlike Hallmark movies, they do not always move to a happy ending in a couple of hours.  Actually, sometimes they do not ever move to a happy ending.  As we tell our stories we often do so through a veil of tears brought forth by emotions which both surprise us and cannot be understood.  Life is filled with laughter and tears.  Our stories tell of the laughter and tears.

It is not always our story which breaks our heart, but the stories of others whose sadness and struggle is still spilling over into words that are faltering and stumbling as they are remembered.  When we find ourselves in the presence of a broken heart, there are few words which can be said that are truly comforting primarily because it is their story and not our own; therefore, try as we might, we cannot understand.  In those moments of wanting to help and comfort, we are mostly left with our prayers.  A verse often remembered in these heartbreaking encounters is Galatians 6:2 which says, "Bear one another's burdens."  

It is truly all we often can do.  We may not be able to walk away carrying some of the emotional load another is carrying, but we can come before the Father with intercessory prayers.  Intercessory prayer of this kind is not "the thought and prayers"  idiom we are quick to say as we part, but is instead the kind of praying which takes time, brings us to our own tears of grief for a friend, and seeks to see the one for whom we are praying through the eyes of God.  It is not prayer for the faint hearted, but the prayer of one seeking to have a heart fashioned after the loving and caring heart of God.  We can bear the burdens of others not with our quick prayers, but with our sitting still before the Father until His grief for them becomes ours.  It is then that we can bear their burdens through our praying.