A “Backpack”?
I have written many times about the Gifts the Lord passes on to each of us at birth. Whether or not you believe that, or even believe in Him, is a choice only you can make.
These Gifts consist of things like levels of personality, honesty, empathy, intellect, tolerance, common sense, logic, a tool set of skills & abilities, and a bunch of things of that sort…..they are assets.
What I have not written about before, is something that comes with the Gifts.
You can't see it because it isn't meant to be seen…..only experienced. It is a responsibility to use the Gifts you were given for good purposes. Thinking folks might call this a conscience but, since it is difficult to visualize a conscience, let's call it a “backpack”.
Each of us gets this virtual backpack so we will know if we are utilizing the assets we have been given, for the purposes we were given them for.
The backpacks are usually empty when we get them, although sometimes the Lord will “bless” us with things like serious illnesses or handicaps, mistreatment, “needing” to care for others, financial woes, friction with others, or other serious obstacles to our daily enjoyment of life.
Think of each such “blessing” as a brick in the backpack.
Failure to utilize your assets creates bricks. Worrying about things you can't change creates bricks. Misuse of your assets creates bricks, etc. As the number of bricks adds up, the weight of your backpack increases.
Your growing burden starts to wear you down. The more worn down you get, the more you pity yourself which just adds more bricks.
You see, God didn't just give you your assets and not expect you to use them to do His work. (p.s., He knew what you were going to do with your life before you were even born, so the backpack isn't for His information.) It is for you.
It is His way to remind you that there are consequences for not leading the kind of life He wants you to be living.
God does not intend that your burden be more than you can handle, and He has provided a way to deal with that.
Anyone including family, friends, and strangers can help. Each time anyone assists you, in any form which helps you, they remove a brick from your backpack. (they lighten your load)
This is not a one-way street. If you don't do the same for them, it just creates more bricks for you.
Regardless of your own burden, you should try to return the favor. You can remove bricks from their backpacks, which further enables them to remove bricks from the backpacks of others. You see where this is going.....right
The backpacks are elastic. They grow as your accumulated pile of bricks grows. They also shrink as they are emptied.
The moral here, as Brother Aesop might conclude, is that everyone has burdens, and perhaps by adjusting our attitudes and priorities, we can reduce some of their burdens while reducing our own burdens.
However, with certain “bricks”, we need help from others. We can't all cure a disease, or pay off someone's debts, or undo a broken heart, but we CAN show empathy and try to help. Even little things can lighten one's load.
Aesop might say that to reduce the weight in your own backpack, you must try to reduce the number of bricks in other people's backpacks first. In other words, use all the assets you were given…..for the benefit of all.
