The manageable load

Read 1 Corinthians 10:12-13

12 So if you think you are standing,watch out that you do not fall. 13 No testing has overtaken you that is not common to everyone. God is faithful,and he will not let you be tested beyond your strength,but with the testing he will also provide the way out so that you may be able to endure it. (NRSV)

Many of us who read this text reckon that while it must obviously be true,it is also the case that God cuts it a bit fine at times in defining just what is endurable,and what is a way out. We sometimes wonder if we can endure what life throws at us.
Perhaps the essence of the ‘way out’ is that we fling our anxieties and burdens on God. We surrender the hankering we have to manage our lives and dictate outcomes and control others. We conclude that life is out of our control and so give it all to God,relinquishing our right to be in charge. That way,we don’t have to bear such a heavy burden.

If that sounds a bit like giving ourselves up to an unreal passivity,we need to add that we ask God to only give us the manageable load,the so-called ‘light burden and easy yoke’. Too often we are crushed,not because God has laid an intolerable load on us,but because we have taken it all on ourselves. Some things we simply cannot bear. Other things,God gives us the strength to bear.

When faced with testing issues,give it all to God,asking him to bear what we cannot bear and asking him to help us bear what is ours to bear. This does not save us from being tested,but it does save us from being crushed by the testing. It reminds us that life was not meant to be easy,but nor was it meant to be intolerable.

Blessings
David Reay