Lay Down Your Burden

Lay down your burden I will carry you; I will carry you, my child, my child. Lay down your burden I will carry you; I will carry you, my child, my child.

I can walk on water, calm a restless sea; I have done a thousand things you’ve never done. I’m really watching while you struggle on your own --- call my name and I’ll come

Lay down your burden I will carry you; I will carry you, my child, my child. Lay down your burden I will carry you; I will carry you, my child, my child.

I give vision to the blind and I can raise the dead, I’ve seen the darker side of hell and I’ve returned. I see your sleepless nights and count every tear you’ve cried --- some lessons hurt to learn.

Lay down your burden I will carry you; I will carry you, my child, my child. Lay down your burden I will carry you; I will carry you, my child, my child.


We talked about the powers and influences that often rule our lives and keep us from truly bringing God’s kingdom to this world at the Women in Ministry conference. How do we engage the powers and influences that have so distorted our world?

The answer for me was found in this song quoted above by Amy Grant. I heard it one day a couple of weeks ago and I was suddenly hit by the reality that I would have a problem with singing let alone saying these words. They are such simple words but thinking about it made me cringe because as I listened to the words I thought about what my reaction would be to Jesus if he actually wanted to carry me??

Through the influence of our culture and my own desire to give in to that - I am a do-it-yourself person and I imagined with a smirk on my face and some sadness in my soul that if I were unable to walk or lame that I would probably say to Jesus – “oh don’t worry about me – I can make it”, “It’s not that bad” or even if I did allow him to carry me because of some sense of knowing who he is – I would somehow try to lighten his load – perhaps holding my breathe and distributing my weight in such a way that I might be convinced I was helping him carry me?? Or maybe I would make sure that if he did carry me that at least I looked really good. Truly, this is laughable.

So I want to share my struggle with you – it may not be yours but you probably know someone like this, who is allowing the powers of our culture to persuade us that we are in control. Some one who feels if they don’t tackle a situation or need it won’t get done and certainly not done right!!! That if you are asked to do something that is worthwhile – you should! That as a woman you have to accomplish whatever is placed before you so that you can prove your worthiness, to yourself, your peers, your spouse, your children and to our Father.

Maybe you have done this – invited people over for a meal and stayed up late cleaning to the point that you are weary when your guests arrive and later you realize they never even mentioned how clean your bathroom was?!? But it’s not always the mundane things that burden us – often times it good things.

When I was a student at LSU (years ago) and involved with the campus ministry one year I applied to intern in the campus ministry and it was titled “College Women’s Counselor”. I was very passionate about my faith and really wanted to encourage other young college women and part of my role in this internship was to host bible studies in the dorm, hold office hours at the campus ministry student center on campus and host events to help evangelize the campus, etc. Soon I became immersed in doing God’s work and within a couple of months I was growing weary but I felt guilty at the thought of not spending every moment doing good things, so I trudged on. One day my roommate stopped by when I was the only one at the student center and when she popped her head in my office she looked at my quite seriously and asked slowly “How Are You doing and I mean really?” It was like that question was in slow motion and taking it all in I realized I was doing terrible for all my involvement and outreach – I was dry and beginning to shrivel up from the lack of nourishment from God, from lack of dependency on Jesus – this busyness that I spoke of earlier was consuming me. I cried and cried. How could I possible help others truly if I was not fully connected to the source of all wisdom, power, grace and forgiveness? The truth was . . .I couldn’t.

Even though I realized that then . . . it continues to be a battle for me – it just looks a little different. Saying “yes” to things can be so easy until you come to terms with the things that you may have to say “no” to because of your “yesses” –Does that make sense? If I say “yes” to a church ladies committee that may mean I say “no” to spending time with my kids or fill-in-the-blank.

This makes me ask why I feel the need to be so involved. Am I afraid to miss opportunities? Is it my drive to prove myself? And my answer is “yes” to all and I have discovered it is a sort of false humility – “I feel humbled by God and his gift and know I can’t do enough but I keep trying. I am subconsciously hoping to make up for my failures somehow – I am holding my breath to help Jesus carrying me better. In essence I am saying I don’t think God or Jesus is big enough to handle my issues.

Going back to the song I heard Jesus trying to convince me that I could depend on him because of all that he is capable of. How sad that I need reminding but how glad I am that he never grows tired and so instead of thinking about Jesus carrying me and my ego or false humility struggling with him carrying me - I begin to hear the song again and Jesus’ other words;
“I can walk on water, calm a restless sea, I give vision to the blind and I can raise the dead – I’ve seen the darker side of hell and I”VE Returned” – in these words my mind rushes back to the stories in scripture that support these word pictures and I realize my folly. Jesus wants to carry me and has more than enough power to do so. There is nothing I can do to help him other than be obedient. Allowing Him to carry me is so much easier when I am relaxed, at peace and enjoying the ride. While He carries me – I can listen to His point of view, get to know Him, telling Him my fears and realize the comfort of calling His name. I also realize that His power extends to everyone that He is in control and that even if I have to say “no” to a good thing that He will ensure He gets accomplished even if not by me. For goodness sake!! God loves and desires all to come to know Him and be rescued!! and Hhe has the power, grace and love to accomplish all His plans and although Hhe does not need me. . . He longs for my love, obedience, my resting in His peace, my allowing Him to carry my burdens, allows me to be useful in His quest to rescue the world.