Pain. Fear. Frustration. Disappointment. Disillusionment.
Insecurity. Uncertainty. These are all parts of a heavy burden that we wear like
a coat every day. Picture this coat like a strait jacket. The primary characteristics
of this coat are its weight and restrictiveness. The weight is oppressive and
emotionally exhausting to carry every day. Everything in life takes so much
more energy and effort because of the emotional weight resting on the shoulders
of the wearer. Another trait of this strait jacket is its restrictive nature. A
strait jacket straps a person’s arms across their abdomen and fastens them in
place. This creates a posture that makes it difficult to go through life.
First of all, it
limits a person’s interaction with other people. We are called to reach out to
those around us to lift up, encourage, and comfort them in the times of
trouble. A person wearing the strait jacket of emotional burden can only embrace
himself. Think about it. How are we to comfort those in our lives when we are
buried under our own burdens. How can we toss out a life preserver when we
ourselves are drowning? Furthermore, a person in a strait jacket, even when
trying to comfort other people, can only lean against that person. That’s not
exactly the kind of comfort a person in need is looking for.
It also restricts a person’s posture in how he relates to
his Savior. When we go to the alter to pray, our posture is all wrong if we’re
wearing out strait jacket. How can we seriously ask God for anything with our
arms crossed? And how can we receive anything from God with that posture? When I was a child, I was taught to pray with
my eyes closed and my hands folded. This was because children are extremely distractible.
Now when I pray, I picture myself standing or kneeling with my face turned
towards heaven and with my arms outstretched and my hands open with my palms
up. This posture is very important because it is the posture of both giving and
receiving. When we take this posture before the alter, we are prepared to give
freely of ourselves to God and we are ready to receive his blessings. One can
neither give nor receive while wearing a heavy, burdensome, strait jacket.
So the question then becomes, how do we approach the alter with
the proper posture? The first impulse is to take off the jacket and hang it up
in the coat room on the way into the sanctuary. That seems reasonable because it’s
not polite to wear a coat in someone’s house and now you’re free to assume the
proper posture. So you stand before the alter prepared to give and receive. You
say amen and pick up your strait jacket on the way out. You are still unable to
minister to your fellow man because of the burden of your coat.
Let’s talk for a moment about the alter. In the old
testament, the alter was used to offer burnt sacrifices to God in atonement for
sin. Now days, we don’t offer burnt sacrifices because the price for our sin
has already been paid. Jesus died on the cross as a sacrifice for our sin. There’s
nothing that we can offer that can better atone for our sins then the sacrifice
that Jesus has already made. So why do we still talk about the alter? I think
the alter is still there for us to sacrifice the things that we think have no
business being in God’s temple. The things like Pain, Fear, Frustration, Disappointment,
Disillusionment, Insecurity and Uncertainty. All the things our strait jacket
of burden is made of. We take that coat off because we don’t want to take it to
God. We don’t feel like we have a right to bring it to God. We think that the
strait jacket is our burden to bear. It’s not.
I think that the alter
is there for that strait jacket. God wants us to lay our burdens on his alter
and leave them there for him to bear. Once we give him our burdensome coat, he
wants to give us a new coat. This coat is made of his love and lined with his
hope. It gives the wearer full range of motion, full use of his arms. Once we put
on this coat, we can wrap our arms around people so that they can feel the warmth
of God’s love. We can reach out and help them carry their burdens. We can be
the light of the world, the salt of the earth that we have been called to be. When
people look at us, they won’t see people bent under the burdens of life and wrapped
up in their own problems. They will see someone clothed in the righteousness of
God, wrapped in his loving arms, and snuggled in the hope of salvation.
Now, it’s easy to think that this is a one and done process.
It’s easy to say, “Ok, I’ve laid the strait jacket on the alter and donned the warmth
of God’s love. I’m good. I’ll have nothing but blue skies and sunshine for the
rest of my life.” I want to make myself clear. The process I’ve just described
is not salvation. The strait jacket of burden is a device that the devil uses
to keep God’s people from being effective in this fallen world. That means that
when you leave the alter, Satan is going to be waiting outside to talk you into
a new strait jacket. “Hey, I see you lost your coat. No worries. I have a new
one for you. Check it out. It’s cut from the same cloth as your old one. I know
you must miss it. Here, just let me help you put it back on.”
My point is, there’s always going to be material available for
a new strait jacket. That just means you’re going to have to spend a lot of
time before the alter. 1 Thessalonians 5:16-18 says “Always be joyful. Never stop
praying. Be thankful in all circumstances, for this is Gods will for you who
belong to Christ.” (NLT)
Every time you start
to feel the weight of the strait jacket on your shoulders, Pray. Every time you
feel the pushing of the Holy Spirit to reach out to someone you love, reach out
and then pray. Every time you feel your joy slipping away, Pray. Exercise the
muscles that allow you to show God to the world. We are instructed to pray without ceasing so
that we are constantly in a position to lay our burdens on the alter so that we
can show the love a Christ to the world. That’s how you keep the strait jacket
off and keep people asking, “What are you wearing?”
