It's Fat Tuesday.

It's Fat Tuesday--which has absolutely nothing to do with what I ate for lunch or what I want to write today. Just thought I'd note that for those of you who are keeping records. I honestly sat down to type without a clear direction about where I wanted to go. So, with times being what they are, I thought I'd give you this verse to take with you today:

Pile your troubles on God's shoulders—he'll carry your load, he'll help you out. He'll never let good people topple into ruin. Psalm 55:22 MSG

It makes me think of...me. Once a week, Lisa makes her necessary trip to the grocery store to buy groceries for our hungry crew. An hour or so later, she pulls into the garage and I will go out to help her. Being the somewhat stubborn person I am, I make it my aim to carry in an entire week's worth of groceries on one trip. I don't know why. It's not like I can't make another trip or that anything will go bad in the short time I'm delivering the others. I just want to grab as many as I can and get it over with. It can get quite comical and burdensome by the time you add all the bags and the several gallons of milk our family goes through each week. I basically look like a pack mule--hopefully smell a little better.

Don't laugh. Many of you have that same tendency. To put it in the words of some of my East Tennessee friends, we tend to want to "borrow trouble." We worry about things we cannot control. We carry burdens that we have supposedly given to God already. We fret over imaginary problems that never come to pass and then, as if it were not enough, we get on the phone with our gossipy friends to see if we can't find something else to add to our load. In reality, what God asks and expects from us is that we would share the load. Not just with Him, but with others who love us and care for us. It's part of the whole "doing life together" thing that we talk about. The Bible says, "Bear one another's burdens" and "Cast all your anxiety on Him because He cares for you." Between the two, you and I should never reach the point where we are toppling over the edge because we bear too much alone.