What's In Your Backpack?

Ready:

"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.” —मत्ती 11:28-30

Set:

One summer after school and sports seasons ended, my family backpacked to Shoshone Lake in Yellowstone National Park. My dad, mother, brother, sister and I each had backpack responsibilities. Before we stepped onto the trail, every item was carefully evaluated. Every pound was weighed because unnecessary weight would become a burden before the hike was over.

Life works much the same way. Our backpacks fill with daily responsibilities, commitments, expectations, and pressures. Many of the burdens that we carry belong. Responsibilities to family. Honest work. Truthfulness. Serving others. These are part of God’s calling. Other burdens find their way into our backpacks, also. For example: The need to prove ourselves. Fear of failure. Bitterness. Peer rejection. Those aren’t responsibilities. They are burdens we place on ourselves.

Jesus, Himself, carried enormous responsibility. Yet He described His yoke (and ours) as light. Why? Because we’re only asked to carry what the Father gives us to carry (John 5, Matthew 11). Like Jesus, we discern through the Holy Spirit what is, and is not, our yoke to carry. That’s what makes our yoke light.

Jesus' invitation to “rest” is about coming closer, not trying harder. We lay aside everything that taps our strength so that after resting, we can run with endurance (Hebrews 12:1). Before our Yellowstone hike, we evaluated every item packed. Unnecessary baggage was surrendered. Jesus invites us to do the same.

As we rest, the Holy Spirit opens our eyes to God’s yoke. He also shows us the baggage we’ve added. Fear, guilt, comparison, and shame sap our strength. The rest we need to be able to endure today’s struggles is discovered by carrying only the yoke Jesus assigned to us. Today ask yourself, “What’s in my backpack?” Did Jesus put it there? If not, unpack it and leave it behind.

Go:

1. Jesus invited weary people to walk beside him. Why didn’t he say, “...just work harder”?

2. What item in your "backpack" should be re-evaluated, surrendered, and entrusted to Jesus?

Workout:

Overtime:

“My God and my Coach, thank You for inviting me to walk beside You. Help me surrender burdens You never intended me to carry. Your yoke is the rest that I need. Amen.”