The Blessing of Burdens
Henry G. Bosch

There’s a story about an old grandfather clock that had stood for three generations in the same corner of a room, faithfully ticking off the minutes and hours, day after day. In the clock was a heavy weight that the owner pulled to the top each night to keep it running. Then one day the clock was sold, and the new owner noticed the heavy weight. “Too bad,” he said, “that such an old clock should have to bear so great a load.” So he took the weight off the chain. At once the clock stopped ticking.

“Why did you do that?” asked the clock.

“I wanted to lighten your burden,” said the man.

“Please put it back,” said the clock. “That’s what keeps me going!”

Most people are looking for an easy way through life. They think that if they had no burdens they could live pleasantly and triumphantly. They don’t realize that God often keeps us going spiritually by the weights that seem to pull us down. Trials can serve to give our feet spiritual traction. Our burdens not only bring us blessing in this life, but they also are “working for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory”.

2 Cor. 4:17, For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, is working for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory.

This article “The Blessing of Burdens” by Henry G. Bosch was excerpted from: www.crosswalk.com website. April 1999. It may be used for study & research purposes only.

This article may not be written by an Apostolic author, but it contains many excellent principles and concepts that can be adapted to most churches. As the old saying goes “Eat the meat. Throw away the bones.”