burdens

Sometimes, scripture makes me think I’m too much a child of our culture and not enough a child of Christ.

I thought that this morning when I read this, in Galatians 6:3-5: “Carry each other’s burdens, and in this way you will fulfill the law of Christ. If anyone thinks they are something when they are not, they deceive themselves. Each one should test their own actions. Then they can take pride in themselves alone, without comparing themselves to someone else, for each one should carry their own load.”

I was struck by a seeming inconsistency: why does Paul call us to carry each other’s burdens, but carry our own load? How does that make sense? It doesn’t if I think a load and a burden are the same thing. But what if they’re different?

A burden is a weight that bogs me down, makes it hard for me to move forward. A load, on the other hand, could be seen as the normal amount that is carried in order to accomplish something. In the Infantry I had a defined combat load that I was expected to carry. On the other hand, there were burdens (batteries, extra water, mines, etc.) that we took turns with.

Paul calls us, it seems, to do our fair share of the work, but to help anyone weighed down by abnormal circumstances. The problem is, we Americans expect not to have to carry any load. To us, a load and a burden are too often the same thing. A sign of success in our culture is when you have other people carry stuff for you.

I think as much as we’re charged to help each other through tough things, we’re also charged not to put our load on someone else. We shouldn’t make our normal lives something dramatic that others have to pray us through or help us with. We shouldn’t expect those church resources to be spent on us during our times of calm and blessing.

We should, however, find peace in the idea that on the days when one more thing gets dropped on our backs, or the path under our feet gets slick or muddy, then our Christian friends will be there as long as we need them. In fact, they expect to.

Loads are different than burdens. I should expect always to be carrying something. Always some of my own stuff, and sometimes some things for other people. But never does a Christian get to walk empty-handed.