This week, Richard and I have a house guest…one of the four legged kind. Victor, a fox terrier, loves playing tug-o-war with my husband. He grabs his little chew toy, playfully shoves it into Richard’s hands and then doesn’t let go.

How often do we do that with God?  We pray to him for an answer to our burdens, but then when God gently, lovingly tells us to drop them in His capable arms, we don’t trust Him enough to lay our burdens down.  In the process, we become overwhelmed. Yet God does not want us to be overwhelmed.

He whispers to us everyday, “Child, open your heart to me instead of the demands of the day.  Lay those burdens at My feet rather than on your shoulders.  Let go of the list and dare to embrace My grace.”

John 16:33 says, “I have told you these things so that in Me you will have peace.  In this world, you will have trouble.  But take heart.  I have overcome the world.”  God always offers us grace undeserved, beauty that wraps itself around our messy lives to make us whole again and joy that arrives like a candle and reminds us brighter days will come.

So today, despite the hustle and bustle of the day, in the midst of creating my long overdue book proposal, I thought about you, my friends.  That you must feel the same way I do sometimes…overwhelmed, ordinary and small.  In the midst of the tug-o-war of life, life is hard.  But God always gives us strength.  He promises that anything we face, He will give us everything we need.

To all of you I know and to those I don’t know, I want to whisper something to you, gently, lovingly “You are making a difference. You are changing the world in your own unique way.  You may not see it, but with one word at a time, one heart at a time, in all that you do, the One who sees loves you.” 

May we all have the courage to let go of our burdens and lay them tenderly at God’s feet.