As challenges come to us in ours lives, where do you turn?  Where is your hope?  Where do you place your burdens?  Do you have anywhere to put them down, or do they become small pockets of hopelessness that get tucked away and weigh you down? 

I have done a good bit of hiking over several years.  I must say, my first couple trips were not very easy. The problem was in my packing process. I was trying to carry way too may things that I didn’t need to carry; things I really didn’t need at all.  Often it was just in my stubbornness that I would be weighted down, simply because I wanted to seem stronger or wanted others to see what I carried.  Ridiculously, on two trips I was by myself. I mean whom was I trying to impress, the squirrels?   Truth be told I was young and ignorant to the fact I could have had a much more pleasant trip if I had not been overwhelmed with the burden of all the extra unneeded weight I was trying to carry. 

This is life.  Most of the time the burdens we carry we do not even need. We just pack them away and carry them through life.  Sadly, most of the time, it is after we have become overwhelmed we realize this. Then we question, why am I carrying this?  We become so used to carrying the burden, we are not sure how NOT to carry it with us. The burdens we take along become a part of who we are, our identity.  The more burdens we carry the more ineffective we become.  Fortunately, there is hope.  We must simply trust in Him.  He knows how to make (our backpack) our life lighter.  When we trust Him, we put our hope in Him to help us lighten our load.

Behold, the eye of the LORD is on those who fear Him, on those who hope for His lovingkindness, to deliver their soul from death, And to keep them alive in famine. Our soul waits for the LORD; He is our help and our shield. For our heart rejoices in Him, because we trust in His holy name. Let Thy lovingkindness, O LORD, be upon us, According as we have hoped in Thee. Psalm 33:18-22 NAS