My Yoke is Easy

There are days when I feel like someone has pushed me into a pool. I am shocked, drenched and ready to punch the person who pushed me. Sometimes I feel like my problems are over the top. My pastor told a story the other day about a guy getting pushed into a pool full of piranhas. 


Once there was a billionaire who collected live piranha. He kept them in the pool at the back of his mansion. The billionaire also had a beautiful daughter who was single.
One day, the billionaire decides to throw a huge party, and during the party he announces, “My dear guests, I have a proposition to every man here. I will give one million dollars, or my daughter, to the man who can swim across this pool full of piranhas and emerge unharmed!”
As soon as he finished his last word, there was the sound of a large splash in the pool. The guy in the pool was swimming with all his might, and the crowd began to cheer him on. Finally, he made it to the other side of the pool unharmed.
The billionaire was impressed. He said, “That was incredible! Fantastic! I didn’t think it could be done! Well, I must keep my end of the bargain. Do you want my daughter or the one million dollars?” The guy catches his breath, then says, “Listen, I don’t want your money! And I don’t want your daughter! I want to know who pushed me in the pool!”


Do you ever feel like this guy? You miss the blessing around you because you are too focused on the bad things. Like the person who pushed you into the water instead of the million dollars someone is trying to hand you. What do you do when you feel over the top with your problems? I read Matthew 11:28-30 on Sunday and it brought me so much comfort.

Matthew 11:28-30 (KJV)
28 Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. 
29 Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls. 
30 For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.

Growing up I thought verse 30 was a little crazy. My yoke - what is Jesus talking about? The egg yoke on his plate or an oxen yoke to pull a wagon? On Sunday it just clicked. Everyone goes through rough times in life. We have burdens we are carrying around and often times feel like no one understands. Or we feel all alone in this crazy world we live in. How often we forget to turn our burdens over to the Lord instead of trying to carry everything. 

Jesus knows what it is like to be all alone. In Mark14:50 - "And they all forsook him, and fled". Jesus was all alone. At first the disciples were all arguing about who would sit on Jesus left or right hand side in heaven. When times got tough they ran away. 

During all the difficult times over the past few months sometimes the only thing that would bring me peace was prayer. I remember laying in bed a week after surgery just crying because of all the blessings I had received. Instead of thinking of all the horrible things that had just happened I would lay there thanking God for all the blessings. I will blog about all the blessing I received very soon. Recently I was at work and I felt so overwhelmed with all the cancer talk. I had to shut my door and just cry. I have really had to lay my burdens on the Lord to get through this difficult time. 

Cancer is one of the ugliest 6 letter words out there. The fear of it coming back is something that can just consume you and eat you alive. A piranha you could see it coming at you or you could see it taking a bite out of your leg. I feel I could defend myself against a piranha a lot better than that ugly 6 letter word. It is the things you are can't see or the unknown that are the roughest in life at times. 

There have been some rough parts lately. I feel it all hit 2 months after it all happened. When I was going through the tests and surgery I felt as strong as a horse. I wasn't worried or scared. I also didn't know exactly what I was dealing with until weeks after surgery. I didn't know how awful Medullary Thyroid Cancer actually is until now.

I have turned off all notifications of the MTC message boards I am part of and stopped reading stuff online. I just need to back away from cancer information for a little while. I can't consume myself with the "what ifs". I am giving my egg yoke to God to handle. He will have to hook up his oxen to the yoke and pull my big wagon full of cancer. I am going off to rest in the sunshine!