Culturally Irrelevant

a load – part 2

In a previous post I talked about a yoke. The yoke connects an animal to a load in the best way possible. In the same way, Jesus’ yoke fits well and gives us grace for the load we’re pulling. By that I mean the yoke of intimacy with Christ makes pulling the load he gives a joy and a passion.

Paul tells the church in Galatians 6 to “carry each other’s burderns” (v. 2) and that “each one should carry his own load” (v. 5). We’ll look at burdens tomorrow, but for now, what does Paul mean by each one carrying his own load? This word “load” means the freight or lading of a ship. It’s a measured load and the ship being loaded is desiged to carry it. In the same way, there’s a “load” I was designed to carry. This is the same word Jesus uses when he says, “for my yoke is easy and my “load” is light (Matt 11:30).

God has given me gifts and talents and a desire to carry a specific load. But there are also false loads that I’m not designed to carry. Maybe it’s someone else’s load, but I’m tempted to pick it up. Maybe it’s a good thing, but it doesn’t belong on my yoke. And maybe it’s a load someone else is trying to put on me, but Jesus hasn’t put it on me. This is what was happening in Matt 22:4. The Pharisees were putting heavy religious requirements, or loads, on  people that God never gave. They were the traditions of men and not God. The loads were unmeasured and unappropriate for the ship they were being loaded to.

One load that I’m pulling right now is my role with The Harbor, a church plant in Pensacola, FL. God has given me very specific things to do in this season, but as soon as I wander from that narrow place of what I’ve been given to do, I start straining. It’s deceptive, really. It comes in as a sense that I need to do something extra to push things along or maybe a simple distraction that starts pulling me away from time with him. And the next thing I know, I don’t have time for everthing, I start feeling dry inside and then I wonder where the grace went.

OK, putting the cookies on the bottom shelf. It’s like this. If I stay in that intimate place with Jesus, keeping at his feet and staying in his word (his yoke), then it’s a joy to work (the load) because I’m not sweating the “stuff” of life. All the sudden the load becomes…well, easy. Believing is easier. Being patient with my kids is easier. Loving my wife and others is easier. But if I get outside that place and get loaded up with other interesting or “necessary” stuff, the journey starts getting hard. 

Here’s the BIG TEST I use for everything: if it distracts me from and pulls me out of that place of intimacy with Jesus, then it has to go.

part 1 – the yoke

 

yoke-making, old school

Jesus said, “Take my yoke upon you and learn from me…for my yoke is easy and my burden is light.” (Matt 11:29)

I’ve taken on so many different yokes in my life. While my yokes are very different than those others have carried, they’ve been burdens nonetheless. Legalism: I served God for many years thinking I had to be disciplined enough to earn his approval. Fear of man: I served leaders for years with a deep need for their approval. Criticism: still struggling with this one. But why? When Jesus says his yoke is easy. Following him, being in relationship with him, being obedient to him is supposed to be “easy” in a sense.

The best picture I’ve gotten lately of Jesus’ yoke is in John 15. Here, Jesus is the true vine and we are the branches. My job is to remain in him, to stay put in his love by being obedient to his commands. That’s it. Intimacy with Jesus through constant remaining and obedience as he speaks. This intimacy is the yoke I wear. Sounds simple, but it’s the place where life comes from, where direction and power come from. And here are the promises if I stay in this place of love and intimacy: I will bear much fruit (v. 5), I will ask whatever I wish, and it will be given (v. 7) and his joy will be in me to complete my joy (v. 11).

If I pull any load from any other yoke, then I’m doing it in my own strength. Picture an ox that takes off the farmer’s yoke and then turns around and bites down on his load and tries to carry it along with his teeth. Wow! Even if it’s a fairly light load, that’s going to be one unhappy ox with no teeth and a load that’s not going to move much. Funny, but it’s what I’ve done with years of my own life.

Farmers used to make their yokes by hand. It takes a huge block of stout wood and a tremendous amount of work and time to make a yoke that can stand up to the pressure a mature ox puts on it. This place of heart intimacy with Jesus can withstand a lot of pressure, which is why God doesn’t mind taking years to form it in me. Once this place is formed, anything is possible.

Here’s what I’m asking myself these days. What are some areas in my life that are not easy or light? What in my life is creating hardness, difficulty and stress? Am I willfully carrying a yoke that Jesus hasn’t given me? If so, where did that yoke come from? Why did I accept it?