A Lighter Load

Recently I was exiting my vehicle and began filling my arms up with all the things I needed to bring inside.  This included a bag of Chick-fil-A, a large CFA ice water, a bottle of water, a cup of water, another thermos with water, my large leather bag, and a pair of pants I’d picked up from the tailor for an upcoming event.

I had all of this in my arms when I burst out laughing realizing I couldn’t actually get out of the car because my precarious load would likely collapse around me when I did.  I started setting things back down and took two trips.

This experience is not an anomaly for me.  When I go grocery shopping I also try to get everything into the house in as few loads as possible.  If I can make it in one load all the better.

On this day as I was walking into my house with my first load of items I found myself asking the question - Why do I want to only take one trip from the car to the house?  It isn’t like I’m parking a city block away and hauling my items down the street.  My car is in our garage and it is all of 10 feet from the car door to the house.

I assumed it was about efficiency - not wanting to waste time taking more trips than needed.  But as I thought about it a bit more I began to wonder if it is more than that.  Maybe this is a pattern in my larger story.  Do I try to carry more than what is reasonable for a single load?

I wonder how often my arms have been overstuffed with life and I didn’t even give it a second thought, but just kept going instead.

The thing is that when our arms are overfilled there is a much better chance of an accident happening.  As I tried to balance all the things from my car, I first thought - it’s fine I can make it work.  But then I thought - if I drop any of this I’m going to be frustrated because it is going to make a mess and possibly damage the pants I just picked up, which would be super annoying and avoidable!

Maybe this is what happens in life at times.  We say - it is fine, I can make it work, but then what we thought was properly balanced starts tipping and suddenly we are frustrated because something crashes to the ground causing an avoidable mess.

I wonder if God might be inviting you to take more trips?  What can you set down and come back for later?  Maybe there is nothing you can set down, but instead, maybe there are people you can ask for help so that you don’t have to shoulder the weight alone.

~  Melissa