Carrying the Weight of the World

I loved the Gospel reading for this week, Matthew 11:25-30:

At that time Jesus exclaimed:
“I give praise to you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth,
for although you have hidden these things
from the wise and the learned
you have revealed them to little ones...


“Come to me, all you who labor and are burdened,
and I will give you rest.
Take my yoke upon you and learn from me,
for I am meek and humble of heart;
and you will find rest for yourselves.
For my yoke is easy, and my burden light.”

Being around kids all week and then hearing this really spoke to me - it's rough being an adult, and sometimes we bring more problems on ourselves than we need to. I thought about how innocent the kids I saw all week really were, about how they don't have very many grown up problems, and that joy just radiated from them. And it's not just laundry- and bills-type grown up problems, either - it's the way they approach life, people, their relationships with each other, and their relationships with God. Thinking back to Adam, Eve, and the apple - they wanted to know all that God knew, so they ate from the tree of knowledge in Genesis 3:4-5:

The serpent said to the woman: "You certainly will not die! No, God knows well that the moment you eat of it your eyes will be opened and you will be like gods who know what is good and what is bad."

Do we really want all that in our lives? I think knowing all that is out there, all the dangers of this world, all the eye-openers, really just drags us down, in a way that these innocent kids have no idea about. If they only knew what we know, especially those who have seen a lot more than they should have, if they lost that innocence... would they lose that joy, too? I think they would. I think that once Adam and Eve feasted on the forbidden fruit and realized they were "naked" and "ashamed", I don't think it's so much that they weren't wearing any clothes, but more that they realized that now they had something to hide, something to keep to themselves instead of sharing themselves, personally and spiritually, with the world. This was probably the official beginning of "emotional baggage".


There is a lot of heavy weight that goes along with being an adult, and it's not just keeping the roof over our heads and our 401(k)s nice and fluffy. Some of us carry drama, negativity, ego (however inflated or inferior), regrets, past hurts, and fear around with us, and I believe the more someone has been through - self-inflicted or otherwise - the harder it is to let go of some of those things. But Jesus tells us we don't have to hold onto that and let it weigh us down. Taking a more humble, Christ-like attitude, letting go of that excess baggage, is a whole lot easier than bringing anger and pessimism and a bad attitude into every situation - almost like some people's issues show up before they do. Little children, whether they realize it or not, know what we don't - keep things simple, keep your mind clear, laugh, have fun, enjoy life, and it's really not that hard to have joy.