The Weight Of The World

There have been times when I’ve been serving in leadership and felt the weight of the world on my shoulder. In 2008 I served as President of our West Metro Board of REALTORS. The economic downturn was coming into full effect my profession and many good friends who were in the business. I found myself trying to help people whom I couldn’t help.

I also remember when I was a student pastor many years ago and a student would come talk to me about their particular situation. Some students were victims of abusive families. Some students were very desperate to win their family to the Lord. Some students just couldn’t figure life out and made some really bad decisions that they would spend the rest of their life paying for. I couldn’t help carrying some of these situations home.

The Lord instructed Moses to make some special garments for the high priest. He has special linen made for robe and tunic. He had a special breastplate made and every piece had special meaning. I found the placement of these two stones very interesting. Check this out…

9 ‘Take two onyx stones and engrave on them the names of the sons of Israel 10 in the order of their birth – six names on one stone and the remaining six on the other. 11 Engrave the names of the sons of Israel on the two stones the way a gem cutter engraves a seal. Then mount the stones in gold filigree settings 12 and fasten them on the shoulder pieces of the ephod as memorial stones for the sons of Israel. Aaron is to bear the names on his shoulders as a memorial before the Lord. (Exodus 28:9-12 NIV)

As high priest, Aaron had a tremendous responsibility for the people. He was God’s representative to the people. He was the access point for the people before God. I can only imagine his daily schedule of counseling and meetings.

I think leaders sometimes feel the weight of their responsibility on their shoulders. I always think that when a person serves as a leader of our country that they age really fast as they make the weightiest decisions of just about anyone on the planet. No matter what they decide, it will have a positive or negative effect on millions of people. They make decisions that can even cause the deaths of thousands. I can hardly imagine the weight of all of that on my shoulders.

When Jesus died on the cross, His shoulders had the sin of the world on Him. He is strong enough to handle any of the stuff that stresses me out. He actually helps me as a leader bear the weight of responsibility of that position. There is nothing too heavy or too complex for Him to handle. As I find myself in leadership positions now, I no longer stress, because The Lord is doing the heavy lifting of the weight that would normally be on my shoulder. That relieves a ton of stress and worry off me. He’s strong. He’s stable. He never gets tried of lifting and carrying the weight from my shoulders.

Pressing On!

Dwayne