What a joy to be free of feeling burdened—that beautiful release from feeling weighed down. It’s a moment of light and grace that changes everything.
Burdens may take many forms, such as obligations, mental or physical difficulties, or debts. Sometimes, we may feel so attached to burdens that they seem to actually define our identity, and we don’t know how to be free of them. But there is comfort and liberation in this promise: “Cast thy burden upon the Lord, and he shall sustain thee” (Psalms 55:22).
According to Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance of the Bible, the Hebrew word for “burden” in that Bible verse means “lot.” A synonym for lot is destiny. “Drawing lots” is a process whereby decisions are made by chance. Burdens often seem to come by chance too; they are not of our choosing, but come about through circumstances resulting from, for example, economic trends, beliefs of heredity or age, or careless oversights. Sometimes, we hear the phrase, “It is my lot in life,” meaning, “This is my situation, and it is not very good.” World thought would decree something a burden or destiny, and say that nothing can be done about it.
