We are all belabored and burdened in many ways: by our sins, by our failures, by our temptations, by our weaknesses, by our limited perspectives. We are belabored and burdened by our past or by our future, by our responsibilities or our lack of them, sometimes by our “enemies,” sometimes by our friends or our relatives.
But to all these troubles and burdens Jesus is the answer. He lightens them either by increasing our strength or by clarifying our perceptions or simply by taking this or that burden off our shoulders.
By comparison, others have far heavier burdens than we. Maybe that’s a sign that Jesus has already been at work in us, offering us rest and making our present burdens an invitation to gratitude.