The Weight of the World

Excuse me…Yeah, you, reading this blog. There’s something on your shoulder. No, I’m serious. I can see it, can’t you? Here, come up closer. I want to take a closer look. It’s round. It’s huge. Wow, it almost looks like the world.

Yeah. It looks like you’ve got the weight of the world on your shoulder. That’s a pretty nifty trick. How did you do that?

“Well, let me tell you the story from the very beginning”, I heard you say.

“It started out one little person at a time. First I put the weight of my parents’ health on my shoulder. They’re getting older, and my dad needed some blood tests. Things went from bad to worse. He had to be hospitalized. My mom’s blood pressure started creeping up because she was worried which led her to go to he doctor. You get the picture.

Then I picked up the weight of my kids. I’ve got three of them. They were great when they were toddlers. They were light, for one. I didn’t feel the extra weight of them. But as they got older, well, we were feeding them pretty well, and next thing you know, I’m carrying their struggle to get good grades, and I’m carrying their relationship issues. One of them is particularly heavy. He gets bullied at school, and well, he can’t sleep well at night. Yeah, the weight of my kids was next.

Then I ran into some old friends one day at the mall. We had them over for dinner. Next thing you know, I’m carrying their weight on my shoulder too. They’ve been going through some marriage stuff. I mean, what’s the big deal, everyone’s going through marriage stuff, but somehow theirs just felt a little closer to home. It felt safer to keep them on my shoulders.

Later that night I looked at our online bank account and threw that on my shoulder too. When I checked my email, I saw a note from someone at church, and I soon had them on my shoulders too.

I don’t know. Things just snowballed from there. I happened to have the TV on. I usually watch the soaps, but on that particular morning I had Fox News on. It felt like the whole world was gonna fall apart. I needed to secure it right on my shoulder to keep it from tipping over. The economy was bad, and the stock market had dropped. The city I live in was rated highest in muggings, and the president’s ratings were dropping. Terrorism was rampant, and the troops were still in Iraq. I was a wreck…until I put that world back on my shoulder.

Oh, and then there was that massive earthquake in Haiti. That made me realize how bad natural disasters had become. I spent hours watching the news about the kids who were dying without food or water. Haiti turned to Africa which turned to Indonesia, which, well, all ended up on my very own shoulder.

Next thing I knew, I was walking around town barely able to lift my head up. The weight of the world on my shoulders.

And I found out that I was pretty good at it too. I could go all day long, and sometimes all night long without putting it down. The muscles around my neck got stronger. Sure, it ate into my patience, and I take a bunch of pills now for my ulcers. But no one else can see that. To the rest of the world, I’m just a woman with the weight of the world on her shoulders.”

By now I was staring at you with my jaw slack and my eyes wide, utterly riveted by your story.

What about God, I say? I thought He had the whole world in His hands? At least that’s what I’ve been taught, I add.

“God?” You answer. “God? Well, I haven’t seen Him in ages. And before you start preaching, I suggest you look in the mirror, because I swear I see something on your shoulder. And it’s round. And It’s huge. Oh, wait…it almost looks like you’ve got the world on your shoulder too.”

If you feel like you’re carrying the world on your shoulders today, can I suggest you take a day off? God is in control. He knows your past and your future. There’s nothing that happens in your life that He doesn’t see and allow. Proverbs 3:5-6 is an oldie but a goodie. It says “Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge him and He will direct your path.”

A patient of mine was struggling with panic attacks recently. I asked what she was doing to overcome them. Her mom replied for her. “Tell her how much the serenity prayer has helped you, sweetie.” I went home and looked it up. Here’s what it says:

God grant me the serenity

to accept the things I cannot change;

courage to change the things I can;

and wisdom to know the difference.

Living one day at a time;

Enjoying one moment at a time;

Accepting hardships as the pathway to peace;

Taking, as He did, this sinful world

as it is, not as I would have it;

Trusting that He will make all things right

if I surrender to His Will;

That I may be reasonably happy in this life

and supremely happy with Him

Forever in the next.

Amen.

–Reinhold Niebuhr

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