The Nut Basket

Good day, folks! At your workplace the boss probably hands out assignments. Unless you are the boss, then you hand out the assignments. Now, let us say for our example that an employee named Herbert gets a tough assignment because his name sounds funny. Herbert does his best, but partly through bungling, partly through a lack of ability, and partly through circumstances beyond his control, Herbert makes a real mess of this assignment. The deadline is upon him and Herbert, beaten down and despairing, takes the assignment back to the boss. "I can't take this anymore, boss. The assignment is way beyond my ability!" The boss is an understanding boss, someone who bears a striking resemblance to our Lord Jesus, and he takes back the assignment and eases the burden on poor Herbert.

Feeling elated at the lifting of the weight from his thin shoulders, and the kind words of the boss, Herbert goes back to his desk a new man. Later, Herbert begins to think about that assignment. In fact, he feels that he could do a better job with it if he got just one more crack at it. Herbert jogs down to the office and sees that the boss has stepped away from his desk. Herbert knows better, but he grabs the assignment off the desk and smuggles it back to his cubicle. He opens the binder and - aiiieee, the horror of the assignment comes crashing back down on him in all its fury. Herbert is once again swamped. The boss comes by later and notices the assignment is gone. He finds Herbert flat on his back with the burden beating him down like a bunch of disciples in a boat. "Didn't I take this burden from you, Herbert? Why did you take such a terrible burden back again?" Herbert, of course, has no good answer to this. Feeling utterly foolish, he lets the boss take the assignment back once more. Ahhh, sweet freedom!

Later, Herbert starts to think again. Oh, dear! Here we go again. How many times has a little "Herbert" crept into your life? As the song goes, we gotta lay those burdens down. Jesus takes the burden from us and we go back time and time again to grab it back like some glutton for punishment. Jesus sweeps us into a situation where our pride is whacked off at the knees and we realize that life is beyond our strength. Our Lord reaches down and takes the burden from us. Sweet blessing and relief. We go back and pick up the same burden, perhaps even adding a few mistakes to make it heavier, and off we go staggering down the road past our Lord as he shakes his royal head at the foolishness of one of his sheep. Like some odd nut basket with only the kind no one likes, we just have to hold on to burdens that Christ longs to take from us. Give up control! Let Jesus take your burden of odd nuts and toss them out. A nice, clean basket is so much easier to bear in this life.

Bucky