When someone you love...when someone you care for departs from a righteous life style...and leaves you disappointed...sorrowful...can you roll that kind of burden? Can you REALLY get out from under that crushing weight and go on with life? What if your best friend has an affair? What if you child departs from the truth? What if your spouse leaves? Is the rolling off the burden possible? Can we follow the advice of the Psalmist in Ps. 55:22 when he counsels us to "Roll your burden on the Lord, and he will support you; He will not allow the righteous to be moved."
John Piper makes this insightful comment in his book Taste & See: "God does not put the strings of our hearts in the hands of sinners. He puts them in the hands of Jesus, who loves sinners." Who can forget that scene in the Gospels where Jesus broken-heartedly wept over the sins of Jerusalem. We can all recall that scene when the rich man walked away from Jesus and chose his riches. Jesus looked on him with love and a broken heart. Yet Jesus spoke of giving us his joy.
Perhaps the answer to rolling off the burden on the Lord lies in absolute trust. Piper went on to say that "No one can blackmail the saints of God with bad behavior and threaten to nullify our love if we will not pay up with the sacrifice of our joy." We must come to the realization that we can weep and grieve over the sins of others and yet at the same time place absolute trust and confidence in the One who does all things well and works all things for good after the counsel of His own will [Mark 7:37; Rom. 8:28; Eph. 1:11; Ps. 110:5]
Piper concludes with the idea that we should never be content with sins, but always content with God in relation to sinners. Can we be content IN circumstances and yet not be content WITH circumstances?
Think about it...
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