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My Burden is Light...


By Father Valery Zakharov

Sometimes it may seem to us that God does not hear us. We cannot understand why this of that happens, or why it does not happen, when we anticipate it. We try to understand the God’s providence with our human mind. In vain, of course. However, there is an easier way – to humble yourself and accept everything that God sends you. Unfortunately, we cannot do this as well, because we oppose and resist God, against everything He wants us to do. How much time do we need to become like children – to accept humbly what is given, to rejoice about what is sent to us and feel sad of what we cannot change?..

The humble are in Heaven while on earth. But how can we achieve this? How can we accept what God sends? Even today, despite the fact we have joined the Church a long time ago, we continue to consider sorrows and diseases to be some bad and sad moments of our lives, and death to be our main punishment. Earlier the faithful people took another a different view: people were afraid when everything was good for long. They thought that God had stepped aside and forgot about them, because they understood that there was the reason for all their sorrows. They understood that if is they could humbly endure those problems, then God’s grace would bless them, that it was the lesson they had to learn to grow spiritually and move to the next class – to the academy of love. But a person cannot skip nursery, school and university and enter the academy at once. We understand this in “earthly” sense, but at the same time we may assume us to be ready spiritually to accept the greatest gift – the gift of love. We may even think that we have already got this gift. And we become so disappointed when we realize that in fact we are not ready to bear what God sends us! Instead to rejoice that God lets us see our condition and get free from this through repentance, we become sad because of our weaknesses. Of course, our way in not clear and easy, but God said: “My burden is light” (Matthew, 11:30). Thus he makes us stronger, helps us not to despair, but to make a step towards Him, although we suffer from diseases and sorrows. We should not turn away, hide somewhere or despond, but should accept everything with our heart.

If we bear our burden or any sorrows, then we get the reward, the medal which God Himself gives to each who follows Him. As we know, at the last times people will be saved not through their great feats, but through sufferings. I wish that we have enough strength and do not lose out hope in God and His presence in our life. Thus we let Him act through us. We cannot separate from God while we think about Him.

St. Elisabeth Convent,

December 16, 2016


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