When something is heavy

"Lift with your legs! Lift with your legs!"

I hear that every time I go to lift something heavy like a box of books or furniture or some other unreasonably heavy thing. My father has had back problems since I can remember, so maybe that is why I always hear that bouncing around in my head... maybe that's also why I tend to yell it to whoever is within earshot, which proves more amusing to me than to them.

I wish there was a "safe saying" like that for life. Oh wait. There already is: "Run to the Lord. Run to the Lord." Why is this easier to forget than "Lift with your legs"? Even though both actions are done with the legs, they are completely different. Rather than standing still and relying on your own strength to take care of a heavy object, you must run to God so that he can make those heavy things beautiful.

When you run to something with all your might, you are not able to turn right around and walk away. I don't know about you, but when I sprint, I am breathless and literally useless to the world while I recover. I have to stay at my destination and try to regain my bearings. To follow the analogy through to completion, during that time of breathless recovery, I must listen. Listening to people is not a problem for me. I like that. I enjoy that. Listening to God... not so easy for me. I tremble at the idea of projecting my ideas as God's. I fear that he will ask me to do something uncomfortable or life-changing. I am afraid that he will let me be vulnerable and I won't recover. If God is the loving and gracious Father he claims to be, all of these fears are irrational. They are the seeds of lies. I am probably not the only person to wrestle with the head knowledge and what the heart is saying.

There is a song by CASCADA that says "Listen to your heart... there's nothing else you can do..." That doesn't really work. Your heart is a part of fallen nature and the only redemptive quality in it is the Holy Spirit, which is not of the human body at all. Sure, God gave us emotions and he gave us brains. He also knows that we are unable to maintain perfection and we are far too easily satisfied with the mud pies of this world (C.S. Lewis).

The heaviness that sin brings is unbearable on our own. We have all the tools we need to survive if we truly believe that Christ intercedes for us and we pursue relationships. Here's the thing about relationships: they go both ways, which means you cannot pour your heart out to God and walk away. There are times when you need to sit down and shut up. This is a lesson I'm learning because there is no other option. When something is heavy, sit down. Shut up. LISTEN.