This morning, I heard Joel Osteen talk about how his medical doctor brother, Paul, felt overwhelmed at a point in his life, when he had huge pressure at work and still had to come home to three children, who were under 6 years old, wanting to play with their dad.
American televangelist
He narrated how Paul had rushed into the hospital ward one day, hurriedly attended to a middle aged woman who had recently lost her husband, and was about to rush to another patient when the woman asked, “Doctor, how are you doing today?” The question took him by surprise, and he opened up to her about the pressure at work and home. She said something that gave him a new perspective, and helped him to cope joyfully, going forward.
She told him how she wished she still had her children running around the house like they did many years ago, that what seemed like a burden then would soon become something to be treasured and longed for. Paul saw the ‘light’, and even began to look forward to going home to be with his family. Joel concluded by saying, “The BLESSING goes with the burden. We’ve got to learn to enjoy the BLESSING despite the burden(s).”
Now, burden is not sorrow, so, the statement above doesn’t negate Proverbs 10:22, “The BLESSING of the LORD makes one rich, ad He adds no sorrow with it.” Rather, it validates Ecclesiastes 5:11, “When goods increase, they increase who eat them; so what profit have the owners except to see them with their eyes?” There’s a burden that goes with every BLESSING, we just have to learn to manage and live with it! Let not the burden rob you of your BLESSING.
Selah!
DA