Two days ago we were challenged to think about what held us back from living a guilt worry free life, our negative experiences we have gone through, and any hurt we might have that we are still holding to. I’ll be the firlst to say that it was a huge challenge for me because I had a lot.
A van took us to an undisclosed spot in a field and we were told to find a log. What was I going to do with this log and why was I sitting in a field? We were then told to use a marker and write down our burdens on this log. My little log was full of things that I knew I had to overcome so I grabbed another one and begin to write on it. (Still didn’t know why we were doing this). As I layed in the sun in that field with my logs, someone approched me and asked if they could pray with me about what was hurting my heart. It wasn’t hard to tell that I had a lot to deal with because it was written in front of me and all of a sudden tears started flowing, a lot of them. I was asked if I was ready to let go of my burdens and give them to the Lord. I said yes, kept crying and was told to start walking, that they had a “trail” for us to walk down and eventualy we would be able to lay these logs that represented physically our emotional demons at the bottom of a cross.
Well, it was not quite a trail-it was a mountain, a very rocky steep mountain we had to walk alone carrying two logs. There were several check-in points through the hike and each time I saw one I kept looking for the cross because I thought I was ready to lay down my burdens.
The cross didnt appear until about 2 hours from the start of our journey. I had never been so happy to reach a resting place. After praying with a leader, he asked me if I was truly ready to give these burdens that were too heavy for me to hold on to 24 hours a day to the Lord. I was! Not just because carrying two logs up a mountain by yourself is enough, but I knew it was time to let go. I threw my logs at the bottom of that homemade wooden cross and prayed the Lord wold never let me hold on to that weight again. I felt overwhelmed with the spirit of the Lord and tears came again. This time good ones. The weight was gone and my spirit was free.
