Unshackled Moments ~ September 16 ~ Sharing The Load

My back hurts this morning. I moved three steel tool boxes yesterday, and even though I did it the easy way, I still put some strain on my back. What's the easy way? Well, I lifted one end high enough to get a chain under the boxes, which were about six feet long, two feet wide and two and a half feet deep. Once I got the chain under it. I let it drop. I then wrapped the chain tightly so that it wouldn't slip, hooked the other end of the chain to the tractor bucket, and used the tractor to raise and move the bucket most of the way. Most of the way. That's where it got difficult and a little frustrating. I could only get the tractor just inside a 30 foot radius, which left me with a little distance, over terrain strewn with obstacles, in which I had to move my load to get it where it needed to be. So I unhooked the chain, and I stood the boxes on end and walked them corner to corner as the things in the way allowed, half-carried and drug them to where I could set them down. Only a few times, for a short moment, did I have all of the weight of any of the boxes on me. I used tricks of leverage and physics to lesson the strength that I needed to move my burden without doing harm to my already damaged back. There were a few times during the hour it took to move three boxes less than 50 feet that I felt that twinge and knew I would hurt later. But I kept going, because that's my job. I simply tried to be more careful not to take all the weight on. My boss came over after I had moved everything and was cleaning the rust off the boxes so that they could be painted. He said, "got 'em moved. Good job." He told me to paint the trailers that needed paint first and paint the boxes last, because they could weight if I ran out of time. Then he said, "Pretty heavy aren't they?" I nodded and said something about them being very heavy but I got it done. Then he said, "I figured you would carry the three as far as the tractor could go and then let me help you carry them to here," and then he walked away. Seriously? He told me to move the boxes. He showed me where they were and where he wanted them. He even told me to use the tractor to move them as far as possible that way. He hadn't said anything about helping me carry them from there. And he was on the phone. How long would I have had to sit around waiting on the clock for help with something I can do myself. I would feel like I wasn't working hard enough or doing my job. I wanted to impress him with what I could get done. I wanted him to remain happy he gave me the opportunity to work when no one else would. I wanted to feel his pleasure over my hard work ethic, maybe even get a little praise. Wait? Get help? Well, yes. If I had I wouldn't be hurting as much this morning. Eddie didn't say anything about helping me because he figured I would know better than to move everything myself. I've worked with him enough to know that he always calls me over to help him with something that could better be moved by two people rather than one. Better to move a little slower on one job than to get hurt and not be able to get anything done later. He's told me before not to hurt myself, and so has my family, and metaphorically so has my aching back. Foolish, stubborn self-reliance. Too smart for my own good. Too worried about not doing a good enough job. Too determined to please and impress with my own effort. We are told in Psalm 55 to cast our burdens onto the Lord and He will sustain (strengthen or support mentally or physically) us. Peter said we can confidently and comfortably cast our cares on the Lord, because He cares for us. Jesus said everyone who is worn out, weary, busted and burdened should come to Him and trade their load for His because His yoke is easy and the burden light. We've been given plenty of instruction not to carry our worries and weight ourselves. Then comes the calling, that task that God calls us to do. Whether it's a long term situation, like a ministry or career, or short term, like being there for someone who needs a hand or a listening ear. So eager to please our Daddy, to show He didn't mess up by giving us the task, wanted His approval and praise, we determine to do the job we have been told to do, to obey. And to do it well. But we forget the earlier instructions and examples that we've been given. God doesn't want to watch us struggle to get the job done ourselves, not even the smartest, easiest, least-damaging way. If we're not teamed up with Jesus to pull that yoke, then when people see the field that's been plowed they see us. God gets the glory when they see Jesus, and that can only happen when He's pulling the load instead of us. No matter how small or easy the task, God never wants us to do it alone. He hates self-sufficiency because it robs Him of closeness with us (working together is a way to forge a bond between two people that can't be broken), it keeps Him from being able to show His providence and grace to us (because we're so busy doing it ourselves we can't see the better thing He had planned to do) or show His power, providence and grace to the world that still needs a savior. Don't hurt your spiritual back. It's good to want to please the Father, to obey, to walk in what we've been called to. But remember that our way is not His way, and no matter how we manipulate and manage things to lessen the load we are still carrying burdens we're not supposed to carry when we do it alone.