Burdens

Across the street from my office, there is a new ENORMOUS grocery store under construction. While it completely destroys the view from my office window, it has been interesting to watch.  There have been and continue to be lots of big cranes moving equipment and materials around.  Of interest has been how concrete floors and columns are poured.

See the long green “thing” on the right in the picture above? Down below at street level are two big trucks – one a concrete mixer and another a pump truck (I guess that’s what they are called).  The concrete mixer unloads into the pump truck which then, you guessed it, pumps the concrete up through a pipe in the long green “thing”.  What you can’t see very well is the flexible tube that extends from the top of the long green “thing”. When the concrete reaches the top, it then uses gravity to fall through the flexible tube into the desired location. I can only imagine the timing on this so that only enough concrete gets pumped up to fill whatever form is being filled. You can see the concrete pillars sticking up – they were all form-filled. It’s also interesting to come to work in the morning and see seven to nine concrete mixers lined up in a row waiting their turn.

Last week, the workers were preparing a floor for concrete. It involved lots of forms and rebar and muscles. You can see the poured floor below extending out from the wall – the workers are standing on it.

It was fascinating to watch them prep the space to hold the concrete and then actually pour and finish the floor.  There were probably about fifteen or more workers in knee-high boots moving the flexible tube to just the right spot for the next batch of concrete. To give some perspective, when they would work the poured concrete to form the floor, they were often in concrete up to almost the tops of their boots!  The long green “thing” was positioned over the area. There were sheets of plywood being used to help direct the concrete (I guess – that’s what it looked like to me).

At one point, one of the sheets of plywood fell and a worker went over to pick it up and put it back in place. Unfortunately, as he bent over, the next load of concrete started pouring – all over him.  He jumped out of the way and disgustedly stalked off to recover a bit. I’m guessing, however, that recovering did not include a change of clothes; he was heavy-laden the rest of the day.

Driving to work today, I was thinking about having that kind of a burden to carry around. How sometimes we are laden with burdens through no fault of our own and how sometimes we choose to be laden with burdens. Jesus tells us, “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.” He gives us rest from the burdens we carry – burdens that frequently are not ours to carry.

Don’t get me wrong – we do have burdens to carry. Just a little further in Matthew 11, He says, “Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.” But often we become soul-weary from choosing burdens that are not ours to carry, from not going to Jesus to receive His rest, by choosing yokes that are difficult. Once chosen, they are hard to give up, hard to lay down. In my life, these burdens are known as worry and seeking control. They are the most difficult burdens to give up because they are rooted in pride.

I need to take concrete burdens of situations, events, and fears to the feet of the Master and exchange them for the light burdens He has for me. It isn’t that they are inconsequential or frivolous, but the burdens I receive from Him are the ones He knows I need to grow closer to Him.