It's been a few days since I cut my hair. I'm still getting used to it. Surprised by how easily my fingers comb through it. How easy it is to quickly throw it up in a pony tail.
I feel lighter.
My head and neck feel the lightness. Like pushing around a wheelbarrow full of bricks, then dumping it out to see how easy it is to steer without a load weighing it down.
“Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.”
- Matthew 11:28 - 30
What is the yoke of Jesus?
Why is the burden light?
Many early Christians were martyred for their faith.
How is this a light yoke?
In my ongoing reading of the early church, most early Christians believed that martyrdom was a joyous occasion. One woman asked to stop the happenings in the arena because her hair fell down and loose hair was a sign of mourning. She wanted to die in joy.
During my retreat last weekend we talked about stages of faith.
Chaos - a place before trust. A place before seeking. The place where fists are tight and God is not an option. A place where we have to be in control.
Faith - the loosening of the grip. The openness to something bigger. The seeking and finding. Joining a faith community. Developing spiritual habits.
Wilderness - the wrestling with God. The dark place where we feel abandoned by God. Where spiritual practices don't seem to work anymore. We are alone. And in the wilderness, we are transformed. Our faith takes on new dimension as we find God in places where we previously could not.
Mystery - the mature faith that holds contradictions in two hands. Where we trust past our ability to explain. Where the cross of Jesus starts to make sense. Where God is bigger than our theology and we begin to let go even of our idea of who God is because we start to recognize how limited our own understanding is.
This mystery, I think, is the yoke of Jesus. It is tethering to things so monumental as the cross and the resurrection. Things I cannot fully explain or pin down but that hold me when I cannot hold myself.
Letting go of my very self into the vastness of God is light, like my haircut. Weights of things I would otherwise carry as part of who I am are laid down before Jesus that I may hold onto mystery instead.
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