In a note from a friend, she shared that her pastor had preached a sermon on “the hells that can be present in one’s life and how they burden others around them.” Oh, my. I hope that was simply the perception of the listener and not the whole gist of the actual message. That wording and its implications distress me somewhat. Just yesterday, too, I learned about the suicide of a friend who had again lapsed in the battle with alcohol. In a conversation with this struggling friend a while back a promise was extracted not to inflict self-harm like that… Actions of the last few weeks, however, suggest that this may have been a while in the planning. Alas, when one is facing failure time and time again and feels hopeless over the prospect of once again losing everything one has worked for, where does one look for help? Surely to Christ, for us as believers, yes. But there is more. One addiction recovery instruction sheet notes that one needs two communities….faith community and recovery community. In my mind they are one and the same. The compartmenalizing of one’s faith (and faith community) from one’s need for support in recovery from the wounds of life and the symptoms that flow from those wounds can lead one to isolation, a sense of duplicitousness or inauthenticity, shame and guilt. All of us are in recovery….recovery from the human condition….the tendency to do as the Apostle Paul described it: “For the good that I would, I do not; but the evil that I would not, that I do.” How do we deal with the reality of our human condition…the struggle within us between what we know is right and what we, in our human weakness, desire and do in spite of the knowledge that it is wrong or harmful? In this friend’s long term struggle with alcohol, Is that how this friend felt…a burden to others? Others whom I know had made a point again and again that the individual was not a burden for the community of faith. We believers and church members are to be mindful of the pain with which some struggle, not just chemical addiction, but many other things, as well. . We can provide a place of comfort and a means of remaining in community for those working through significant issues in their lives….Celebrate Recovery, a loving sense of welcome, confidential accountability groups, counseling assistance, etc. Who among us even now feels that their struggle is a burden to others?
Jesus said, “Take my yoke upon you, for my yoke is easy and my burden is light.” Christ invites us, weak creatures that we are, to be yoked with him. He will carry the weight of the burden. Like the smaller, younger ox in training in the yoke with a mature and sturdy animal, we simply have to stay yoked and walk alongside. We are Christ’s hands and feet in the world and can share that invitation with others. Let us, Christ’s Body in the world today, help one another carry the burdens of our lives…..all of us together doing so in the strength of Christ. (3/28/2017) CBB