So while I was cleaning out my “office”…

I am a collector of paper and ideas…books, journals, pictures, journals, scraps of paper with thoughts jotted down, journals…

and lately I have been trying to get a handle on the growing problem in what was formerly known as John’s room after he took over what had been formerly known as Rachel’s room.

In it are piles and piles and stacks of books I have read, books I want to read, and …

journals.

I would show you a picture, but then I would have to lock you away where you could never, ever tell anyone what it looks like in there.

So trust me.

It’s mind-boggling.

But I have been plugging away and every now and again, I come across something that I would have totally forgotten about if I hadn’t written it down.

So here is the treasure I found today tucked away in a funny little old school black and white notebook.

I know it’s old. Because the ink has started to fade kind of blurry and I can’t remember for the life of me the subject of my prayers at the time. Evidently two people were consuming my prayers when I wrote this but I do not know which two it would have been.

I can almost guarantee one of them had a last name ending in R and had half of my chromosomes but which one? I am not sure.

Revisiting this encouragement from the Lord during what must have been a rough season of prayer has blessed me today.

And so I hope and pray it blesses you <3

One day when a weariness set in, I lay down to rest.

I have found it helpful at such times to ask the Lord to give me a picture of what I am struggling with.

As I rested I saw a big green mountain like you see out west; large and stretching to the sky with many passes etched into the side.

A mountain someone could hike up.

It would take a long while, but it would be doable for a normal hiker.

It wasn’t the sheer rock face that mountain climbers scale.

And the Lord spoke in my heart…

“What if I asked you to physically carry the two of them up the mountain, because I wanted them at the top of it?”

I thought how much I would not want to let Him down.

If He wanted them at the top of the mountain, I would want to do it for Him.

But I also thought how impossible the task would be.

As I pondered this dilemma, He impressed upon my heart.

“As strong as you could ever be with much conditioning, you would never be able to carry two people, physically, up a mountain. So why should you expect as much from your spirit? Why do you think that you will ever be spiritually strong enough to carry the burden of them to the top of the Mountain of My will?”

I pondered in my heart that the Lord must be asking me to quit because my efforts were useless.

Instead He gently reminded me….

“Roll the weight of the burden onto Me.”

After such a long season of intercession, the thought of being free of the burden sounded wonderfully relieving. I began to anticipate the freedom of truly releasing it onto Him.

But no…that is not what He had in mind.

“When you roll the burden onto Me, we will be yoked together and I will help you carry it.”

Suddenly the image of Simon of Cyrene came to mind; how he had shouldered the Cross alongside our Savior.

Bodies pressed together – bearing the weight of the Cross as they leaned into each other – equally yoked.

And then I understood, to roll the burden onto Him; to be yoked in prayer and love.

My prayers becoming attached to His will…my weakness attached to His strength. 

This is how we carry on when we carry a burden <3

Maybe this one was just a good reminder for me…thanks for sharing the journey <3