ALL WHO ARE BURDENED...

Emotionally I crash on a regular basis. When the crisis has passed I often realise it's quite an unreasonable reaction - just DON'T tell me that at the time!!

There are any number of things that can cause this...things like plumbing, faulty wiring, big-bad-meanie business people...did I mention plumbing??? Things that are beyond my control-freakish abilities.

My fob-off to these often irrational emotional crashes has always been; "I don't handle stress well." The truth of that is actually two-fold. I DON'T handle stress that involves me or my family...or plumbing. Other people's stress?...well, I can be an in-control tower of strength with words of comfort, but when it comes home to nest that's a whole other story. You see, when it happens to other people there is a cut off - a point where it no longer travels with you, where you can leave it behind, cast a thought to it once in a while, pray, but for the most part you don't have to think about it 24/7. Home-front challenges are a little different though.

I worked as a Barista for a well known coffee franchise in Sydney, and like most we were understaffed and overworked. I had no problem dealing with grinders that wouldn't grind, dishwashers that wouldn't wash, delivery men that wouldn't deliver, and less than motivated staff. But at the end of the day I wasn't the boss so if it didn't get sorted on my watch it wasn't my problem. However when the issues became personal and were unable to be walked away from - when they became mine and the gap between them and me narrowed considerably, that's when I was in need of a place to crash land!

I've learnt recently that Jesus stands in the gap between me and difficulty...whatever form that takes on. Matthew 11:28-30 says; "Come to Me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For My yoke is easy and My burden is light."

Rest for our souls! What a sweet thought, because sometimes our very souls can become so heavy with the burdens of life. A woman I know recently endured the heart wrenching care of her mother with cancer, and her subsequent death. Another close friend is supporting her husband who had just lost his mother. Yet another friend has just been diagnosed with a brain tumour. Even I have recently journeyed through uncertain darkness as two of my brothers went through open heart surgery - praise God both are recovered and well again.

EVERYONE is facing SOMETHING. Health issues, financial struggles, mental illnesses, addictions, emotionally/spiritually/physically lost children...the list of burdens goes on.

Our souls are depleted.

Our souls are in desperate need.

Jesus promises to be our rest, our safe place, our comfort corner somewhere, and our shoulder to cry on. So, I know I can still emotionally crash from time to time, because no matter how imbalanced or out of control that may happen, Jesus is in the gap between me and complete emotional detriment. Deuteronomy 33:17a says; "The eternal God is your refuge, and underneath are the everlasting arms." This is one of my 82yr old mother's favourite comfort verses - and she's been through a LOT!

I think for me, at this time in my life, I am drawing deeper on that comfort which comes only from Jesus. As my understanding grows I can see amazing, heart-hugging ways in which Jesus is the Lover of my soul, and interested in me, even when I am needlessly wigging out! I think back on how many times I looked in the wrong directions in the hopes of someone taking an interest in me, in who I am, in what I like, in all the quirks that make up ME, and even in the things that cause me to sometimes be an emotional basket-case...and I was always disappointed.

In Jesus there is no disappointment.

There was a time when I knew of Jesus, knew He was there but I had no idea what it meant to have a personal relationship with Him. It always seemed like something you had to be a priest or a nun to grasp, or there had to be an astounding understanding of the Bible in order to be worthy of this intimacy. But that's not so. This is a freely offered gift for anyone who wants to accept it.

Hope comes from Jesus because without Him none of us would see Heaven. None of us would be worthy of being in the presence of God, because under our own abilities and without Salvation we are too tainted and tarnished for the eyes of God.

Comfort comes from Jesus because as flesh He experienced all the things we will, in order to empathise with us in our lives. We can draw comfort from that because He knows, He experienced and truly understands the things we face in our day to day life, and through Him we have the means to cope and overcome. There is astounding comfort in a King who fights for us, intercedes for us, and campaigns for us. There is astounding comfort in knowing we can bring everything to Him and be restored and healed and encouraged onward.

As we grow to understand who Jesus truly is; the Son of God, God Himself, King of kings and Lord of lords, a sacrificial Offering of Innocence for sin, a Redeemer, a Saviour, a Friend, we are then able to truly grasp our own worth to Him. That He would be all this, and willingly so, for the lost and lonely, the sinful and undeserving of this world...our King loves us that much! He spread His arms and died!

Our part to play all this is by turning to Jesus in everything - though every up or down, every joy or sadness, through every emotional melt-down, reasonable or not!...He'll soon set us straight about that too, be assured! By realising that we can hide nothing from Him anyway, and that going to our Lord in truth and repentance is freeing beyond imagination. Joyce Meyer writes; "Secrets keep you in prison!" So true.

We can remember also, that seeking Jesus daily will bless us with a deeper relationship with Him, greater than we could fathom or ever hope for with anyone else. There is no one who will understand any of us more intimately, who is more interested in us than He is, or who loves us more unconditionally as Jesus does, and pursues us with an unfathomable passion and desire.

Why would anyone NOT surrender to that?

What better place to crash land when our worlds spiral out of control?

LET'S PRAY...
Our wonderful and Passionate King, Jesus,
Thank You for Your abounding love and comfort, for being our Hope, for Your sustaining desire for us. Thank You that in You we are worthy of eternity, and because of You we are saved and redeemed. You paid a price You did not owe because we were incapable of paying our debt. Jesus, our Lord, thank You for all the ways in which You have pursued us, and we ask You please to never let us go. In Your awesome and beautiful Name, amen.