On Sunday my amazing church took some time to express their appreciation to me. It was very humbling and gratifying to hear how God has allowed me to invest in the lives of such wonderful people.
After the service, I was munching on some cake and talking with some folks. I approached one lady in our church to ask about a situation in her life. It turns out that the situation I was asking about was one of those “tip of the iceberg” things. She then proceeded to unload all of the frustrations she’s been carrying around over the past couple of weeks.
It was nice hearing the kind words of my congregations, but this lady’s rant (that was her word for it) was one of the nicest compliments!
Why do I say this? Because she felt comfortable enough to lose the mask, drop the pose, and be real!
Read the Psalms and you will see how many times the psalmists let loose in God’s presence. They tell God how difficult things have been, how many bad guys are out to get them, and how rotten they feel. They unload all of these raw emotions in His presence, and that is the first step toward receiving God’s healing.
In the New Testament, Christians are encouraged to bear one another’s burdens, but that’s awfully hard to do if we keep our burdens to ourselves.
Church should be the safest place for us to unload the burdens we are carrying! That’s why I felt like I received such an amazing compliment when this precious lady felt secure enough to share what was really going on.
I pray that you have a church or Christian friends with whom you can unload your over-taxing burdens. And I pray that you can be the church where others feel safe enough to trust you with their burdens.
Craig T. Owens 