The weight of the world is immense. Life, so full of hope and expectation, failure and learning, passion and sorrow. It is too much for any one of us to bear alone. The mass of imperfection is crippling. The capacity for beauty overwhelming.
For this very reason, we are made for community. Togetherness is humanity’s way of sharing the weight of the world. Within our pods of intimacy, what is otherwise impossible becomes bearable and sometimes a gathering of joy.
This is why the grief of losing someone is so intense. When someone who has helped us carry the weight of the world is gone, there is not just a new heaviness, but a new distribution of mass. It is discombobulating, to say the least. It can be downright terrifying.
All of a sudden, one of our weight-bearers is gone. The shift is catastrophic and can destroy us.
But there is another side to sorrow. A truth made plain during this monumental recalibration. God truly bears the weight of the world. When we try to control things we cannot control, we take on the weight of the world, and that is simply something we cannot bear. There are only three things we control, and one of those is whom we trust. Trusting God to control the world is our pathway to peace.
God also gave us one another. Believing God controls the world is something we are meant to do together. Hebrews 10 tells us to give priority to assembling together to stir one another up to love and good works. The world can get us down. We need each other. We need encouragement. We are not meant to bear the weight of the world, we are meant to trust God. And trusting God is something we do together.
“Carry each other’s burdens, and in this way you will fulfill the law of Christ.”
– Galatians 6:2