Today we continue our study of the 23rd Psalm. Last week we looked at the burden of discontent when we live our lives in want – in the prison of want; always seeking greener pastures instead of resting in God’s love and care. Forgetting the promise, that what you have in your Shepherd is greater than what you do not have in your life.
The Lord is my Shepherd I shall not want.” READ 23:2a-3
Have you ever been on Lake Tahoe as the sun is rising? It is so peaceful. The water is still and smooth almost like glass and the air is crisp and calm. The sun has yet to give warmth for the day, but you know it soon will. Sitting on the deck you feel like all is right with the world. Now imagine that you walk down to the water’s edge and skip a smooth stone watching it glide and jump making ripples that collide as they expand. The stone interrupts the peace of the water. But soon it will settle again. Now you discover you have lots of stones, so many that you need a wheelbarrow to hold them. Big stones, little stones each one waiting its turn to be thrown in the lake. The big one will make major waves and profound disruption. Big or little those are not just stones, they are your worries. Each stone is one of your worries filling your wheelbarrow of worry. We all know how heavy a wheelbarrow can be, how heavy our worries can be. Each worry, is robbing you of your peace of mind. The Biblical word for worry actually means divided mind. Merimnao is a compound word of two Greek words merizo (to divide) and nous (the mind) (Traveling Light, Lucado, pg 48) We have all suffered with divided minds when we get caught up in the “Whaddifs” and “Howells.”
- What if my surgery does not go well?
- How will I ever save enough money for retirement?
- What if I cannot stay in my home?
- How will I know when to discipline my kids?
Now think of your own worries; think of your own What if…. your own how will I…
Each one unsettles your mind. But these are only the worries we generate. How about the jet ski of politics racing through your mind, or the speed boats of ISIS and refugee crisis shattering the peaceful lake of your soul?
I really do wish that a worry was once then done; throw it in the lake and it was gone. But worry weighs us down like stones and gets stuck in our minds, filling up our wheelbarrow over and over again, dividing our attentions between what is and what might happen. Jesus wisely said, “You cannot add any time to your life by worrying about it (Matt. 6:27). Yet worry can keep us up, weigh us down and robs us of our peace of mind. So what do we do?
The Psalm offers us two things: First God leads. God leads you beside still waters. God leads you paths of righteousness. God leads. When your lake, your soul, is disturbed by worries remember that God is not sending you out to handle this on your own. No. “God isn’t behind you, yelling ‘Go!’ God is ahead of you bidding, ‘Come!’ God is in front, clearing the path, cutting the brush, showing the way. Just before the curve, God says, ‘Turn here.’ Standing next to the rocks, God warns, ‘Watch your step’” (Lucado, pg. 48). When you start to worry remember God is leading you. Secondly, let’s take a lesson from Moses and the wilderness, since we are in the midst of Lent. Remember God promised to supply them with manna each day. The Israelites were to only take food for one day. If they took more it would rot. So it is with the concerns of our life we handle the needs of today without trying to solve tomorrow’s problems. Your strength comes from God and God gives it to you much like manna. “Meet today’s problems with today’s strength. Don’t start tackling tomorrow’s worries until tomorrow. You don’t have tomorrow’s strength yet. You simply have enough for today” (Lucado, pg. 50). Every morning God restores your soul like the early morning on a calm lake, especially when you start each day with a time of devotion and you refuse to pick up tomorrow’s worries or yesterdays burdens.
When I got my flu shot a met a woman in the waiting room of Safeway and we started talking. Once she discovered what I do for a living she openly told me she is consumed with guilt. She was raised Catholic and she carries a great burden of guilt. I am sure she is not alone. We all have things we feel guilty about; lies we have told, people we have hurt, pain we have cause, things we left undone. Guilt weighs you down, wears you out and always is with you. When I think about guilt, I visualize an old beat up trunk filled with all of the wrong doings. It is so heavy that it almost has to be dragged along the floor. If you are really attached to your guilt maybe you have put our trunk of guilt on a dolly trying to make this burden easier to carry. But it is no use. In reality guilt is the residual of sin.
It is us clinging to the hurt, instead of laying it at Christ’s feet. When we cling to our guilt we regard Jesus from a human point of view, not capable of saving us from sin.
Carrying guilt means Christ was just human, not divine and we deny ourselves living as a new creation in Christ. That is the gift of the cross of Christ. Christ died to take away our sin, your sins and mine. “Calgary is the compost pile of guilt. Would you like to leave yours there as well?” (Lucado, pg. 67).
You get to lay all of your guilt at Christ’s feet at any time you are willing to ask for forgiveness. We pray our silent confession each week so that you have a time to empty your wheelbarrow of worry and lighten the load of your trunk of guilt. If we don’t offer our sins to God then we leave church just as burdened as when we came. Yet every day, every moment Jesus asks you are you tired of dragging around your worries and guilt? If so, give your shoulders a rest and place your burdens on my shoulders. Jesus said, “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” (Mt. 11:29). He leads me beside still waters he restores my soul. He leads me in paths of righteousness for his name sake.
Paths of righteousness is the way we are right with God especially when our trunk is empty and our wheelbarrow turned over. Scripture declares, “God was not counting their trespasses against them,” (vs. 19) Instead God is reconciling God self with you. God promises, “For your sake he made him sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God” (vs. 21) Christ carries your burdens; Christ became your sin so that you might be reconciled to God. “For Christ died for sins once and for all, the righteous for the unrighteous, to bring you to God” (1 Peter 3:18).
Once you are with God, in relationship with Christ, you become a new creation! The old life of worry and guilt has passed away, behold the new has come. As a new creation you say yes to Christ, yes to putting down and walking away from your trunk of guilt and your wheelbarrow of worry. You have found rest for your soul. God restores your soul and leads you beside still waters. As a new creation you are sitting on the deck overlooking the lake, inhaling God’s peace, at one with God, hearing Jesus’ words, “”My yoke is easy and My burden is light.” He leads beside still waters. He restores my soul. AMEN.
