My mouth dropped open when I saw the picture on Facebook. What on earth were all those Bible College students doing smashing a car? And perhaps more importantly, what was my own son doing in that picture, crowbar in hand?
I figured there had to be a reasonable explanation. You know, maybe it was some kind of an object lesson. Maybe it was a real accident, someone was trapped inside, and the Bible students were simply lending a helping hand. When I asked, however, the reason was not at all what I suspected: They were simply distressing.
Apparently, my son’s Bible College in Edmonton, Alberta had arranged for an auto wrecking group to drop off a vehicle that was scheduled to be taken apart for parts and then smashed. The Bible Students were then given free rein to do with it as they wished, and in the end, what was left was returned to the auto wreckers.
It all seemed rather senseless to me…
It is good to know, however, that the Bible School is not only taking care of the spiritual health and education of its students, but also realizing their need to distress…
God also knows we need to distress. He created us with emotions, the positive ones as well as the negative ones. He knew before we were born that life’s pressures would be more than we could handle alone, and just like the Bible College provided a bit of harmless fun for the stressed students, God has given us a loving command for just one primary purpose: To lower our stress levels. God’s command?
“Come unto Me all you who are burdened and heavily laden and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you and learn of Me, for I am meek and humble in heart and you will find rest for your soul.” (Matt 11:28-30)
Anyone who has ever carried anything heavy knows exactly how good it feels to set that burden down for awhile; but God isn’t asking us to set down the burden for “awhile.” He’s asking us to give them to Him–for good! He will carry it for now on.
God knew when He created us that stress couldn’t be removed from our lives, that it would, instead, need to be dealt with. In His wisdom, He worked in the solution: All we have to do to distress is to give all of our burdens to Him. We need to let go and let Him handle our problems, our worries, our cares. We need to let Him provide us with the strength we need to go on, to cope, to be strong.
You know what? Smashing up a wrecked car actually kind of sounds like fun. But once the car is smashed, the problems are still there.
Why not hand them over to Jesus instead?
In His love,
Lyn
Lyn Chaffart, Speech-Language Pathologist, mother of two, Author — “Aboard God’s Train — A Journey With God Through the Valley of Cancer”, Author and Moderator for The Nugget, a tri-weekly internet newsletter, and Scriptural Nuggets, a website devoted to Christian devotionals and inspirational poems, with Answers2Prayer Ministries. Follow Lyn on Twitter @lynchaffart.