The Yoke and The Burden

Looking for something to do with all your extra summer time? Something exciting with lots of adventure, something that is fulfilling and will leave you wanting more? Something that help you to experience life with a deeper new meaning? Then try going to daily Mass! I know that my parish offers an 8:30 Mass (which I personally prefer because it’s a great start to the day), or a 12:00 mass, if you feel like sleeping in.  Some parishes even offer daily masses at night. But seriously, if you don’t do it already, try to make it a habit to go spend a little extra time during the week to grow your faith life by going to mass if you can. Even if that means you have to sacrifice sleep, or you’re the youngest person there:) Or,   read the daily readings to help yourself on your journey of faith with God (which there are also convenient apps for!)

The Gospel reading for Thursday was one of my new favorites Mt 11:28-30, which says “Jesus said: “Come to me, all you who labor and are burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am meek and humble of heart; and you will find rest for yourselves. For my yoke is easy, and my burden light.””

I love that saying, “My yoke is easy, and my burden is light. ” But I never fully understood it until it was explained to me last week. A yoke is a big wooden cross that harnesses two animals together which allows them to plow fields and work together. Yokes have to be created specifically for every individual animal because each animals statue varies a little bit. If an animal is too big or too small for the yoke it will be harnessed into, it could seriously injure the animal.

After knowing that and really being able to unwrap the whole meaning of the scripture verse, I find it very comforting. When I read the verse I in vision Christ who has created a yoke specifically fit for me  on one side, and for Him on the other. Christ created a yoke that is perfectly shaped to fit myself comfortably, but also to fit Christ with me. An animal cannot plow a field by himself in a yoke designed for 2 animals. Neither can we pull our crosses and our burdens by ourselves. If we accept Christ into our lives fully and trust Him and allow Him to help us with our burdens and our struggles, then we can see that He will protect us and help carry us when we can no longer stand. He will be by our side showing us that the Yoke, or the life and the plan He created for us is perfect if we follow His will. But, our life can be  best lived when we allow Christ to work within it. Then He can carry our burden, wipe our tears, help us to balance and stand and keep going with a strong trust and faith in Him.

The Comforts of Camping

Over the weekend, I went camping with some friends and it was really awesome! This is not something I would expect myself to say about a camping trip. For those of you who know me, you know that I don’t really camp. I’m typically a girly girl and I don’t really do outdoors that much. And I most definitely DON’T do bugs, especially spiders. They are so scary! But anyways, even though I was nervous about the whole thing, I decided to suck it up and go with my friends because I thought it would be fun to hang out with everyone. Luckily when we got there I realized it wasn’t primitive camping. Fortunately, we had access to bathrooms, outlets and cell phone service. So we weren’t totally by ourselves in the woods haha. But despite my apprehension, it was a really, really fun trip! The site we were at was gorgeous and we were able to go swimming in the lake and build a campfire. And it turns out it was really nice to get away for a little while. I think sometimes we get so caught up in life and so caught up in everything we think we need to do that we forget to take time out for God. We also get so caught up in ourselves and our material possessions. We forget that we never need to worry about having what we need because God has always got us in the palm of His hand, and He will never abandon us. I know I do this a ton; I take a lot of things for granted. I have wayyy more clothes than I could ever wear and way more shoes then I could ever walk in. I have a nice house and a nice family and God always provides food and belongings for me. However, I tend to depend on these materialistic worldly things for comfort. Whenever I don’t feel that I have everything that I need/want, I kinda freak out. Like when we were camping, I had a small, over packed backpack, and to my dismay, it had everything in it that I could really ever need. All the extra stuff that I have at home is just extra. The Bible says in Matthew 6:19-21, “Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys, and where thieves do not break in or steal; for where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.” Instead of focusing on the worldly things, we need to be focused on our real goal, getting to heaven and preparing our spiritual lives. To grow deeper with Christ, we need to be uncomfortable.

Faith, Trust, and Pixie Dust?

 Sometimes, life can seem… a little impossible to handle. With all the obligations and expectations that are thrown our way each and every day, with work, school, or whatever it may be it can be hard to stay sane. Especially during exam week! For me, these past few weeks have been jam packed, and a little bit stressful. And I for one have not always handled stress well in the past. I usually end up worrying, overthinking, and getting myself worked up and emotionally tired over nothing.  Luckily however, over the years I have gotten much better at working through and dealing with stress.

Yes, probably part of the reason why I’m better at dealing with it is because I have more experience, but that’s not it. I know that the main reason I’m better at handling stress now, is because I have a deeper relationship with Christ. Now, I’m not always perfect with this. There are certainly days where I like to think I can do it all on my own. And there are days I forget that God has me in the palm of His hand and there is no need to worry. However, I know that when I focus more attention and more time on Christ than I do stressing over things and I ask for His help, the load is much easier to bear.

We can try to prepare for our future on earth by obsessing over SAT scores and what we are going to wear. But, how are we preparing for our eternal future with God in heaven?