Yoked With Jesus

Posted with permission by my Mom

With the recent death of my Dad, I am in Tucson with my mom for the next couple of weeks. I try to listen to her and respond whenever possible with words of the only comfort and hope I know — the promises of Jesus. It is also how I respond to every abortion-minded mom I counsel as a sidewalk counselor with Cities4Life. I pray always not only that God will open the doors of opportunity to share the Gospel, but that He would give me wisdom, courage, and discernment in walking through them.

Yesterday, I told my mother about a vivid recurring dream I have that I had again just the previous night. She told me she had a recurring dream as well, but in the past few days, it had a new ending. The dream was that she was falling. She was scared, and would cry out, but always awoke before she hit the ground. A few days ago, she had the dream that she was falling. She was afraid as always, but instead of waking up, she smashed to the ground.

“What do you think it means?” I asked.

“I don’t know,” she said. “What do you think?”

“Well if it was my dream, I would think that you were very afraid of terrible things happening, but then it happened, and you survived.”

She looked at me and said, “That resonates with me.”

“It is how I felt when I had breast cancer,” I told her. “I didn’t want breast cancer, I would not want it again…but once I had it, I realized that I could handle it. I knew I was in God’s hands, I knew where I was going if I died, and I knew that God was with me through it all. In fact I never felt closer to God than while I was in the midst of that very terrible struggle.”

She was silent, still looking at me very intently. I knew she was processing what I was saying. 

“Recently I was reading verses I have read a thousand times, and I had an epiphany that relates to this. The verses are in Matthew 11:28-30. Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.” I always paid attention to the comforting fact that Jesus would help our weary souls and give us rest. But as I was reading it recently, I paused on that verse about taking His yoke. 

“Wait a minute! He just offered us rest…but He was telling us we had to take his yoke. That doesn’t sound restful.

“I went to the dictionary to look up yoke to be sure I understood. This was the definition: a wooden cross piece in which two animals are hitched together to pull a load.

“Well, that made me take notice. First, a wooden cross! Jesus died for me on a wooden cross to pay the penalty for sin that I owed. But then the yoke is used for two creatures to pull a load together. See, Jesus may not remove our burden, but He is right beside us pulling it with us. That is exactly what I felt while I was struggling with cancer. He was right there with me.”

My mom was still quiet, peering at me with deep concentration. I am not sure what she was thinking, but I hope it was how much she longed for that relationship; that eternal, loving presence especially in the wake of her husband’s death. Her family surrounds her and we do our best to help her through this, but we are NOTHING compared to the hope and love of our Lord.

The women I counsel who are on the brink of abortion feel they have an unbearable burden. They see no way out of the crushing circumstances in which they find themselves. Whether we view the burden as heavy or not is of no consequence. They feel trapped by the pregnancy, and they need help.

The only truly transformative help we can offer is to trust Jesus, follow His commands, and let Him help them bear the burdens of life. He does not often remove the burden, but His presence certainly lightens it.

At least it has for me.

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Revelation 21:4 

He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away.”