11-3-14<\/p>\n
We believe Jesus in many ways and about many things; or we like to believe we do. But often, when He speaks most directly, His humble servants \u2013 you and me \u2013 tend to either miss the significance of His words, or sometimes over-think them. Does that happen in your life?<\/p>\n
In either of those cases His words lose their effect! Unplugging Jesus? That\u2019s not just foolish; it could be dangerous. <\/p>\n
I am speaking specifically of His promises to us, and when we don\u2019t act on them. Why would the Son of God \u201cgo out on a limb\u201d and promise us peace and healing and forgiveness and wisdom and strength and power, unless He can fulfill those promises; and wants us to take Him at His word; and have us try to exercise spiritual gifts? And if we don\u2019t \u2013 if we hear them, but are timid, or weak in faith, or exercise excuses \u2013 are we not, in effect, calling Him a liar?<\/p>\n
In Matthew\u2019s Gospel, Jesus said: \u201cCome to me, all who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke on you and learn from me, because I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy to bear, and my load is not hard to carry\u201d (11:28-39, NET).<\/p>\n
Could there be a sweeter promise? We don\u2019t have to be farmers or ploughmen to understand the analogy. All we have to be is human beings \u2013 with our usual problems and fears and disappointments; and, sometimes, doubts \u2013 to FEEL the unspeakable joy that such an invitation holds. But yet, we do not always avail ourselves of the promise.<\/p>\n
How often do we feel unworthy to bring all our problems for the Lord to deal with, especially if they are of our own making? How often do we feel that our spirituality should not admit to needing any help \u2013 \u201cwe can take it from here, Lord\u201d? How often do we over-intellectualize, searching scripture, seeking counsel, even praying, praying, praying? Those all might represent good \u201cB\u201d answers\u2026 when the \u201cA\u201d answer is the promise of Jesus!<\/p>\n
How often do we do these things (or not do these things)? The answer is \u2013 often. Too often.<\/p>\n
\u201cTake your burden to the Lord leave it there.\u201d You know, there is a lot of room at the foot of the cross. More than we can imagine. One burden. Many of our burdens. Huge burdens. The burdens of many. And in the meantime \u2013 on our way to the cross to leave them, so to speak \u2013 Jesus will be our yoke, lifting the load, carrying our burdens for us. <\/p>\n
There is a hymn, \u201cLeave It There,\u201d describing this very practice, taking our burdens to the Lord. It has special significance to me and my family. After the heart and kidney transplants of my wife Nancy at Temple University Hospital in Philadelphia, we conducted a hospital ministry to heart-failure and transplant patients. For six years we (that is, Nancy and me and our three children Heather, Ted, and Emily) would conduct services and visit patients\u2019 rooms once or twice every week.<\/p>\n
In our services, \u201cLeave It There\u201d became a favorite hymn, often requested by patients, some of whom heard it for the first time in those services, and by patients who came and went through the years. Among its comforting, and strengthening, lines: \u201cIf your body suffers pain and your health you can\u2019t regain, And your soul is almost sinking in despair, Jesus knows the pain you feel, He can save and He can heal; Take your burden to the Lord and leave it there. ~~ Leave it there, leave it there, Take your burden to the Lord and leave it there; If you trust and never doubt, He will surely bring you out! Take your burden to the Lord and leave it there.\u201d<\/p>\n
It was written by Charles Albert Tindley, born in 1851, the son of a slave. By age five he was orphaned, but at 17, after the Civil War, he had taught himself to read and write. He moved from Maryland to Philadelphia, working for no pay as a church custodian but, aspiring to the ministry, he learned Greek and Hebrew. The African Methodist Episcopal Church accredited him on the basis of outstanding test scores and preaching skills. For several years he was placed in different churches in different cities, impressing his congregations and winning converts.<\/p>\n
Pastor, Deacon, Elder\u2026 eventually Tindley received a call to a congregation in Philadelphia. Thus did this servant of God become pastor of the church where he once worked as an unpaid janitor. When he preached his first sermon there, 130 members sat in the pews. Eventually under him the church had more than 10,000 worshipers. He preached, he championed civic causes, and he wrote astonishing hymns and gospel songs. One became the basis of the Civil Rights anthem, \u201cWe Shall Overcome.\u201d <\/p>\n
Another was \u201cTake Your Burden To the Lord, and Leave It There.\u201d <\/p>\n
Doing research during the course of our hospital ministry, I was surprised to learn that the author of our makeshift congregations\u2019 favorite hymn lived and preached in Tindley Temple, just down North Broad Street from where we met every Sunday morning. We had a connection with Dr. Tindley, who died in 1933, that seemed more than coincidental. Did he, with all the challenges he faced and, yes, burdens he bore, always \u201ctrust and never doubt\u201d? That likely is not the case\u2026 but he was, as an overcomer, an example of someone who took those burdens to the Lord and left them there.<\/p>\n
Those very acts, trusting and fighting the temptation to doubt, will be honored by God. He will surely bring you out.<\/p>\n
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