Verse I Like:

Weekly Dose

There is a serious case to be made that at least some of our success is attributed to things that are beyond our control. Circumstances shift. Unexpected setbacks come. Success, in part, is dependent on factors we never chose. They’re chosen.

But maturity requires that we take responsibility for things that are totally out of our control. This gives us autonomy over them, the ability to conquer and will your way to your destiny. To shoulder burdens that aren’t ours by choice is to claim the strength to rise above them.

At the very least, you can always choose your response. Curveballs will come, but your reaction belongs entirely to you. Responsibility begins there, and from there it expands outward. You can bear more than you think.

Purpose is found in bearing the weight of responsibility. The to meaning is not through expediency, but through endurance.

Quotes I Like:

Mane Message

In the gospel story, as Christ carries the cross up the hill to be crucified, His strength begins to waver under its crushing weight. It is in the moment, during the most important event ever to happen, that Simon of Cyrene enters the scene—or rather, is thrust into the scene. He didn’t choose it, but this brief moment of burden becomes eternally significant.

Simon was an ordinary man, a traveler in from the countryside, likely just arriving for the Passover festival in Jerusalem. The gospels tell us that as he passed by, he was suddenly seized by Roman soldiers and forced into bearing a burden he did not choose. Before him stood Jesus, bloodied and stumbling, carrying the cross toward Golgotha.

Simon is ordered to take up the beam and bear it alongside Christ. He had no preparation. No time to consider the weight of the situation. One minute, he was a bystander, and the next, he was “in the trenches” with the suffering Messiah.

The burden was placed on him. Little did he know that it was a privilege, not a burden at all. Though it is seemingly a small piece of the story, its significance must be expressed. It is included in three of the four gospels. In carrying the cross, he became part of the central story of redemption. A “draftee” in the battle between good and evil. An event that would culminate in the greatest act of love the world has ever known.

Simon’s story shows us that oftentimes responsibility is not asked for, but given. We may be thrust into burdens we never expected to carry. Yet, in Divine design, there is a purpose and significance that we can’t fully comprehend.

Take responsibility for what isn’t even yours. Bear the burden.

Weekly Ponder

Could the very burden you resent be the tool used to refine your character?

What if the weight you bear today is preparing you to lift someone else tomorrow?

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