To say the least, the Hammond family has been going through a lot lately.  As we do, we are trying to honor God with the way that we raise our kids, with the way that we handle the stress of brain cancer and it’s treatment, with the way that we are reaching out to our neighbors with the love of God and with the good news that the love of God is for them, and with the way that we interact with Him.  There can be moments when I can be stretched to my limit where I am not sure I can keep going.

And in those moments I think about the words of Jesus that say things like:

28 “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. 29 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. 30 For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.”

Matthew 11:28-30

I so very much want the rest for my soul, I want and easier yoke, I want a lighter burden… but often when I am stretched thin I chase after the rest, the easier life, and the lighter burden.  Jesus does not want us to worry and work after the removal of worry and work from our lives.  Jesus wants us to worry and work to focus our lives on Him so that He can remove the worry and work from our lives.  This is so incredibly counter intuitive to me.  If I stop juggling all the balls, they will fall to the ground, won’t they?

But what if all along there was a master juggler just waiting for you to turn around so that He could take the balls from you?  “Come to me,” says the Master Juggler.  “Learn from me,” He says.  “Take on the yoke of keeping your eyes focused on me.”

“And I will give you rest.”

Are you trying to keep all the balls in the air on your own? Or are you working hard to stay near, to keep your eyes fixed on, and to learn from the Master Juggler?