By Justin Brown
The Truth and Lies station on prayer night has always had a place in my heart. Whether it was as a camper learning how I was free from sin in Romans 6-8, or as D-Team being blown away by the power of the Holy Spirit when I step back and let Him work through me, I have always felt the power and the presence of Jesus through that station. I had felt this so much so, that in my 2 years of Servant Team and 2 years of D-Team, I hadn’t really considered leading another station. This past year at camp, that changed.
I had the privilege of helping with the Burdens station this year. For those who do not know, at Burdens, each camper prayerfully carries their “burden”, (a bucket of rocks), up the steep trail at Waterfront and lays that burden down at the foot of the cross at the top of the hill. This concept of visualizing and physically carrying your spiritual burdens has a huge impact on everyone who participates. I was so happy to get to help with this station this year. The campers took it very seriously and it was incredibly cool seeing them finally give up all the weight they had been holding on to, in more ways than one.
I want to briefly give some practical things that I learned about this station from leading this station.
(1) Sometimes you have no idea just how much you have been carrying.
This emphasizes just how important it is to regularly spend time reflecting on the condition of your heart. One way I enjoy doing this is through simple prayer journaling to God. Whether it’s through music, writing, or just silence, we all must have a consistent way that we ask God to reveal and heal our brokenness.
(2) Ask fellow believers for help.
This is one of the reasons for the church. As Christians, we must seek biblical, meaningful, and deep friends that our willing to come along side us while we carry our heaviest weights. Not only this, but we must be willing to ask for help when we need it. Your weight gets a lot lighter if you have an extra hand helping to carry it.
(3) Lay it down at the foot of the cross.
Sometimes we get so caught up in how heavy our burden is that we forget to look up at the top of the hill. In Matthew 11, Jesus promises that if we come to Him, He will give us rest. If we are not careful, we can get so caught up in our strategy for carrying our bucket of rocks around, that we miss how we could of put that burden down a long time ago. There is complete freedom and peace in Christ.
In the end, the weight of your burdens is a symptom of something deeper. A challenging passage for me recently has been out of Collosians 3:15.
And let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts...
Does the weight of our burdens consume and pester us? Or rather, does the incredible peace of Jesus rule our hearts?