Unburdened From What Has Been

We carry so much load, but what if we were unburdened? Perhaps the donkey might learn to dance light and free.

It’s an image that tells a story.

The story of a heavy laden down camel carrying a load of straw and the little proverb ‘the final straw that broke the camel’s back’

It’s the load. The burden. It’s the feather.

The weight, awkwardness, and struggle that eventually takes one out.

What are you carrying?

What weighs upon your thinking and bends upon your back?

I had a picture the other day appear in my thinking.

It was of a donkey carrying a heavy load of sand. As the donkey got older, the load didn’t change, but its ability to carry the load diminished. It just couldn’t do it anymore.

Eventually, the load crushed the donkey. It broke its back. The donkey with the burden still intact.

It needed to be unburdened.

Unburdened

Can I take your confession?

Each Sunday I go to church, and my vicar speaks forgiveness to my donkey back.

We come seeking forgiveness as members of Christ’s body,
for all we have failed to be and do,
as members of Christ’s body.

Silence

In God there is forgiveness.
Loving and all-seeing God,
forgive us where we have failed to support one another
and to be what we claim to be.
Forgive us when we have failed to serve you;
and where our thoughts and actions have been
contrary to yours we ask your pardon.

God forgives you; be at peace.

In that briefest of moments, there is an unburdening. A setting free.

The bags of sand I have accumulated on my back are forgiven and drop away.

The trick is not picking them up again 🙂.

The brain has a nasty velcro habit of clinging onto the old and rejecting the new.

That’s why I, like a beggar hungry for bread, keep coming back to be reminded of absolute absolution.

Absolution – 1. formal release from guilt, obligation, or punishment. 2. ecclesiastical declaration that a person’s sins have been forgiven.

A New Life Emerges!

Paul, who certainly had a donkey load of crimes that could be associated with his name, recognised this absolution and the freedom his donkey back felt.

He had a NEW life emerge out from within.

The donkey of his brain still had a sharp pokey thorn to keep him humble, but this newness of life and freedom brought him to a new dance.

He writes to a group of donkeys, like us.

Our firm decision is to work from this focused center: One man died for everyone.

That puts everyone in the same boat.

He included everyone in his death so that everyone could also be included in his life,
a resurrection life, a far better life than people ever lived on their own.

Because of this decision we don’t evaluate people by what they have or how they look.

We looked at the Messiah that way once and got it all wrong, as you know.

We certainly don’t look at him that way anymore.

Now we look inside, and what we see is that anyone united with the Messiah gets a fresh start, is created new.

The old life is gone; a new life emerges! 2 Corinthians 5:14-17

If anyone is in Christ, there is a new creation:
everything old has passed away;
see, everything has become new! 2 Corinthians 5:17

There is a season for everything.

Perhaps it’s the season of unburdening the load you have been carrying.

Unburdened From What Has Been

Such a heavy load
Laid upon donkey’s back
Sand grain upon sand grain
Story woven sacks

He tried his best
To carry it all
But the upholding
Was his certain downfall

The body can only take so much
It wasn’t built for that
Guilt and shame piled upon his soul
Never meant for that

Crippled and discarded
No use to anyone
Now in a ditch forgotten
Dying under trauma tonne

A priest comes by
The perfect one
Beside him
He begins to sit

Shining raiment
Woven cloak
Stars sparkle
Captured in its weave

‘You are forgiven’
Sign of the cross
Angels shout
Declared absolution

Burdens removed
Crushing weight gone
Time for heart to beat
Time for new song

A thorn still sticks in his side
A limp from yesterday
To a glorious saviour he looks
Nail holes still on display

Unburdening is sacred task
Letting go of what has been
Brain wants to keep it alive
Saviours soap keeps him clean

He stands there now
Unburdened, shiny, free
God’s love has performed a miracle
Toned muscles for world to see

Others still throw stones at donkey
The Satan certainly does
He dips himself in the sea
Washed with God’s great love

Can I help you unburden?
Can I raise a sacred hand?
Declare your donkey unburdened
No more sacks of sand

Why this matters for Mental Health?

If I was to take a stress profile of someone, and identify all the stressors weighing on someone’s life, then included would have to be those unseen areas of pain, shame, guilt, hurt and loss. Combined, all those specks of sand and bags of rocks might add up to quite a load. Forgiveness unburdens the load.

Questions?
Comments?
Email me 🙂📨
barry@turningthepage.co.nz

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Quotes to consider

Christianity is one beggar telling another beggar where he found bread. D.T. Niles
To understand all is to forgive all. Evelyn Waugh
Sinners often speak the truth. And saints have led people astray. Examine what is said, not the one who says it. Anthony de Mello
He condemned nothing in haste and without taking circumstances into account. He said, “Examine the road over which the fault has passed.” Victor Hugo Les Misérables
Acceptance is not our mode nearly as much as aggression, resistance, fight, or flight. None of them achieve the deep and lasting results of true acceptance and peaceful surrender. Richard Rohr.
God’s forgiveness toward me and my forgiveness toward another are like the voice and the echo. Dennis and Matthew Linn
Offer it up personally,then. Right now. I thought of how many people go to their graves unforgiven and unforgiving. I thought of how many people have had siblings or friends or children or lovers disappear from their lives before precious words of clemency or absolution could be passed along. How do the survivors of terminated relationships ever endure the pain of unfinished business? From that place of meditation, I found the answer-you can finish the business yourself, from within yourself. It’s not only possible, it’s essential. Elizabeth Gilbert
Forgiveness is unilateral. God isn’t waiting for us to get it together, to clean up, shape up, get up – God has already done it. Rob Bell, Love Wins

Questions to answer

If you could identify every little straw, speck of sand, feather, burden laid upon the back of your donkey soul, how much weight would it be?
How much have those burdens, unresolved, shaped your personality?
What would it be like to have ‘No more sacks of sand’?

Formation exercise

As an act of private confession, write a prayer of confession. Unburden your tired donkey brain of all the specks of sand and sacks of rocks. Declare ‘Forgiven’ over all of them.