"Bear one another's burdens, and thus fulfill the law of Christ." Galatians 6:2.
That feels like a tall order. My own life is full of “burdens”...how can I be expected to take on someone else’s? I want to be helpful, but I don’t have a lot of spare cash, and I don’t have a lot of spare time. How in the world can I be expected to bear anyone else’s burden?
Let me tell you a story that my dear friend shared with me. She was in a store with her adorable 2 year old son. Normally this boy is happy and cheerful, but on this day, he was sad, and he was crying. Sometimes when these things happen, we can just scoop up our little ones and leave, but my friend did not have that option on that day. She needed to accomplish her task at hand. And so, she talked to and loved on her boy, she got what she needed as quickly as possible, and headed to the check out line. In front of her was a woman with two young boys. When it was the woman’s turn to check out, the woman asked the clerk behind the counter how his day was going. He said “It would be a lot better if people would get their screaming kids out of here.” And then the woman pointed at my friend and her son, and said “I know what you mean. I've been listening to that the whole time I've been here.” Let’s just all take a minute to grieve over this moment, can we? Was my friend having a super fun time with her crying boy in the store? Was she pinching him to make him cry to ruin everyone’s shopping experience because she enjoys that sort of thing? Of course not. My friend was already carrying a burden. Her son was sad in public. If you have kids, you know...that’s a heavy load. Instead of the clerk and the woman in line ignoring it for another 30 seconds,or God forbid, offering a kind word or a sympathetic glance, they chose to heap more burden upon my friend. They saw her heavy load, and they decided it wasn't heavy enough. They scrutinized. They judged. They criticized. They made her cry. And I don't mind telling you, it makes this God-fearing, worship-team-singing, cheesecake baking mom of four want to shake them silly.
Of course, it only takes a moment of feeling this way for me to realize that I have been the one heaping burden upon someone else more times than I want to admit. I have been critical of someone’s driving, their parenting, their cooking, their home decor, their fashion, their choice of theology. I have seen someone struggling and thought “They brought that on themselves. They are only getting what they deserve.” I have been less than gracious. I have been unmerciful. I have added to others’ burdens instead of easing them. God,forgive me.
Christians, we especially need to be in the business of easing people's burdens, and I believe we can do that in a way that costs us nothing. We can be kind. We can be gracious. We can let people in in traffic, even when they waited till the last minute to merge. We can be pleasant to the clerk who is new at her job and is taking forever to ring up our purchase. We can give an encouraging word or glance to a mom whose child is having a tough time in the store. Kindness costs us nothing, my friends, but it might be priceless to the person we give it to.
I have one more story to tell. This story shames me, but I tell it because it so perfectly illustrates my point. I was at a women’s retreat with the ladies of our church. I was sitting on the fireplace with my pastor’s wife, chatting, and my mom, across the way, was taking a picture of my pastor’s wife and I. It was taking my mom quite a while to take this picture...she was sitting there, with the phone held up, pointed at us, for quite a long time. Finally, my pastor’s wife said to me, “Is she taking a video of us, or just a picture?” And I said, slightly embarrassed, “Nooo, she’s taking a picture, but sometimes it takes her a little while to make it happen.” and my pastor’s wife said “You know, that happens to me all the time. My family always wants me to take the pictures because my phone takes such good ones, but it takes me forever to actually get the picture.” I saw, in that moment, a picture of grace. It was such a small thing, such a small story, but I saw that my pastor’s wife knows the meaning of being gracious, and extending it to everyone, regardless of the circumstance. She could have joined me in a good natured joshing of my mom and her technical prowess, but instead, she showed kindness, humility, and grace. She eased my mother’s burden.
My friends, I urge you to think about kindness. I am not talking about being a doormat. I am simply talking about choosing grace over annoyance, kindness over impatience, mercy over scorn. Let’s ease one another’s burdens in this way. It’s something we can all afford to do.
