Too Much

I cringe at the expectations placed before me.
I frown at the daily reminder of who I am now.
I beat myself up looking back over this year and reminding myself of my failures.

People say that "God will not give us more that we can bear."  They say it's in the Bible and I ask them where? The correct verse is-
1 Corinthians 10:13
No temptation has overtaken you except what is common to mankind. And God is faithful; he will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear. But when you are tempted, he will also provide a way out so that you can endure it.

He will not TEMPT us beyond what we can bear. But give? I look over the last year of my life and I know with certainty that God gave me much more than I could ever bear.
I look at the life of friends and their struggles. I hear stories of people being persecuted and killed in the name of Jesus. Not given more than they can bear? A cheating spouse, a broken heart, a cruel disease, the death of a child.

God is faithful. God is good.

So what do I believe then? I believe that God is God and He is to be praised. I believe that God reaches down and gives unexplainable comfort and release.

God carries my burdens. HE bears them. Not me.

And because of that I can rejoice in this burden placed on me. I can rejoice that those who look on my life or hear my story will be pointed to God and His incredibly mercy. For it's all about HIM. Not little me. He is the reason I can still smile, the reason I have joy, release and giggle uncontrollably at times.

My prayer for you reading this is that you place your burden that you cannot bear upon His large shoulders and watch what He does with it.

 HOPE

Hope is the thing with feathers
That perches in the soul,
And sings the tune--without the words,
And never stops at all,

And sweetest in the gale is heard;
And sore must be the storm
That could abash the little bird
That kept so many warm.

I've heard it in the chillest land,
And on the strangest sea;
Yet, never, in extremity,
It asked a crumb of me.

-Emily Dickinson