The Burden and Hope

Island worthy of hope

One morning, many many years ago, a few women went to a tomb.  They were weighed down with burdens.  The future seemed bleak.  Their friend and mentor was dead.  Their greatest hopes dashed. And moreover, who would roll away the heavy stone so they could weep and mourn?  Who would take away this burden?

Lately I’ve been feeling the burden of this place.  I’m not talking about the day-to-day life—the heat, meetings, classes, homeschool, emails, prayer times, etc.  I’m talking about the great burden of hoping for something that can appear utterly impossible.  We long for prolific and abundant heart change across the Islands.  Yet every day we see and hear of people making terrible choices.  We see them putting their trust in things that cannot save.  We see them embracing darkness and dark practices.  We see them chained to despair and slaves of fate.  We see selfishness destroy families, friendships, and governments.  We see a jaded resignation to life and acceptance of evil and injustice with heads bowed down to the ground.  Compared with huge, widespread transformation that we long for, it feels like we see little.  Sometimes it is a heavy burden.  

A ridiculous burden!  What could I possibly do to change anything here?  What could anyone do?  It would take something miraculous.  It would take a power greater than anything available to mere men.  What kind of a fool would try to carry such a burden?

The truth is, I am a fool to try to carry this burden.  And who is asking me to carry it?  No one.  But what of this crazy hope that I have?  What am I to do when there is little change?  Shall I give up hope?  No.  You see, hope is not the burden.  The burden is thinking that I can somehow bring about the changes I want.  The burden comes when I try to lift things I was never meant to lift.  My struggle is to stop trying to lift it and to hold onto hope.

Beautiful new growth

It is a wonderful thing to drop the burden I was never meant to carry and to grab onto hope.  It is freeing.  It is joyful.  Hope puts my mind and my heart on the things that are to be, the things that I long for, the things that will burst with life and love and peace.  What a wonderful place for my spirit to be!  But for some reason, I have a tendency to drop hope and try to pick up the burden—the one I cannot lift.  What a waste of time! And yet I do it, time and again.  Until I am reminded anew of the futility of it and I decide to grab onto hope again.

Sometimes it is when I need hope the most, that I leave it to strain at the great burden. Something goes wrong, a challenge arises and instead of holding onto hope I try to fix it myself and so grab onto the burden. Paradoxically, when I am experiencing the fruit of trusting and I am holding fast to the hope I have, I can also be tempted to go try and pick up the burden.  There are good things happening here, but when good things happen, when I see fruit, or growth or new maturity, I see it as my job to keep it going, and before I realize it, I’ve slipped back under the crushing weight of the burden that is not mine.

So in good times and in bad I can have a tendency to try to carry the burden.  Will I ever learn?  The burden isn’t mine.  There is someone else who will and does carry the burden.  He does not ask my help, but he asks for my company.  He has taken the burden upon himself and He carries it well.  He asks me to come along with Him.  To follow him on the journey and to hope, as He does the things I cannot.

One morning, many many years ago, a few women went to a tomb.  They were weighed down with burdens.  The future seemed bleak.  Their friend and mentor was dead.  Their greatest hope gone. And moreover, who would roll away the heavy stone so they could weep and mourn?  Who would take away this heavy burden.  But when they came to the tomb, the stone was rolled away.  The burden was already lifted.  The hope is secured.  

Our son turns 11

PRAYERS ANSWERED
Our old teammates made it back to Africa safely and are settling into their new home in mainland Africa. We were able to celebrate our son’s birthday well over a couple different days. We are very thankful for him and the ways he is growing and maturing! We were able to celebrate this weekend with a small gathering at the river and were able to enjoy ourselves. We are also grateful that we were able to safely reach higher ground before a flash flood hit the river valley! (It was an abrupt end to the outing.) We are thankful that even though Megan’s back got very painful for a day this week, it has made a quick recovery and we have been able to work out a better sleeping situation for her back.

PRAYERS REQUESTED
We had homestays organized for our two newest teammates, but then they got sick. Thankfully they tested negative for COVID, but they still aren’t feeling great and so we’ve had to delay their homestays. Pray that they would heal quickly and able to have homestays before the month of fasting begins next week. The island sisters are hoping to get together this week to remember this past weekend’s holiday— pray for an encouraging gathering and that a plan of meeting and supporting one another could be formed for the month of fasting. One of our brothers on Clove Island, who is originally from mainland Africa, lost his father to COVID. He couldn’t go home for the funeral and so they had a memorial service here. It went well. Pray that God would comfort our brother as his father’s death was unexpected and it is hard to be far away from family at this time. We continue to pray in preparation for the month of fasting— pray that it would be a month marked by hope and joy! We have heard more rumors about possible unrest in the coming days/weeks. We never know whether these rumors will amount to anything, but we continue to pray for stability, peace and justice on the islands.