Three Jokes That Made Me Laugh in the Middle of Life’s Heaviness

My blogging has been very light lately. I think my creativity is at a pretty low ebb, and the reason seems to be that I’ve been preoccupied with some unusually serious issues. I’m not complaining. We all deal with hard things from time to time, and as a pastor, it goes with the territory. Jesus is still on the throne, and I know He’s working His will.

But one of the gifts God has given me in the middle of Heavy Things is laughter. More than once in recent weeks, my wife and I have been stressing late at night, and what helped us keep our sanity is silliness. Busting up over dumb jokes, or stupid movie lines we both remembered.

Here are three examples that cracked us up.

"What is God's Promise?" - Casting Your Burdens on the Lord, Part 3

When we cast our burdens on the Lord, what happens? What does He promise to do about our distress and pain? Cast your burden on the LORD is His command, in Psalm 55:22. And His promise follows: and he will sustain you; he will never permit the righteous to be moved.

God’s promise in Psalm 55:22 is in two parts. He makes a promise for right now, while we’re struggling with our burdens, and He also makes a promise for forever, for any and all burdens we might experience in the course of our lives.

Casting Your Burden on the Lord - Part 2: "What are Your Options?"

Everybody has burdens, and Psalm 55:22 tells us what to do with them. Cast your burden on the LORD, and he will sustain you; he will never permit the righteous to be moved.

Last time I asked “what is your burden?” Burdens may seem heavy, wearisome, painful, unfair, and destructive. But they are also given to us by our wise, kind, loving, and all-powerful Heavenly Father. 

So in this post I want to focus on how we’re supposed to deal with our burdens.

What are your options?

As in most things, there are only a limited number of possibilities to deal with the burdens of life.

1. Resent them. Sometimes people express their resentment at the burdens they carry by bitterness and blaming. But resentment only increases the weight of the burden. Not to mention that ultimately the resentment is aimed at the God of the universe. Not a good option.
   

Casting Your Burdens on the Lord - Part One: "What is Your Burden?"

When I became a Christian many years ago, one of the first verses I ever “hid in my heart” was Psalm 55:22: Cast your burden on the LORD, and he will sustain you; he will never permit the righteous to be moved.

At the time, those words seemed almost too good to be true. They helped me deal with my problems and encouraged my growth in grace. I read them over and over, memorizing them without even trying. Now, four decades later, Psalm 55:22 is even more precious to me. Its truth and comfort and promise remain constant, even though my life circumstances (and burdens) are much different.

I thought it might be a blessing to share the verse that has been such a blessing to me. My plan is to focus on asking and answering three questions: for this post, what is your burden? Next time, what are your options? And for a final post on the verse, what is God’s promise?