Psalm 55:22
Cast your burden on the LORD,
and he will sustain you;
he will never permit
the righteous to be moved.
St. Teresa of Avila was once dragged across a river under her horse after the saddle slipped. She was dumped unceremoniously in the mud and slime and, in the midst of this, heard the voice of the Holy Spirit say, “This is the way I treat all my friends.” Teresa’s tart reply: “Then it is no wonder you have so few.”
Many Christians before and since have thought the same in their hearts for a simple reason: The Christian life is hard. It is based on a crucified Lord, a sorrowful Mother, and Apostles who spent their lives getting beaten up, shipwrecked, imprisoned, stoned, run out of town, lied about, beheaded and crucified upside down.
To be a Christian is to take up a cross and carry it each day. It is to reach the point, at times, of crying out “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” And it is here that we discover the amazing thing: Christ is there, right at the bottom. He’s been there way ahead of us and he doesn’t budge from us even there. And if he doesn’t move, we can remain anchored even in the storm. Today, cast your burden on him.
