Jesus said, “…Take up your cross and follow Me.” Matthew 16:24

Yesterday, my wife found “The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King”, the extended version, on television and decided it was a good day to watch four and a half hours of battles against the forces of darkness trying to take an iron grip on middle earth. I sat down to join her somewhere in the middle of this J.R.R. Tolkien classic tale. It wasn’t long before one of the best lines in film emerged. Frodo Baggins has the very difficult calling of carrying a “Ring” filled with awesome power to its destruction. In a final climb up a mountain, just at a moment when the burden is almost to great for Frodo to bear, Sam, his friend, says to him,

“I can’t carry it for you, but I can carry you.”

My wife and I looked at each other and both felt the weight, and truths, found in that statement. When Christ says to us, “Take up your cross and follow me,” He knows there are callings, and dreams, and burdens we have to carry in this life, but over and over again in scripture, God says,

“I will carry you”

When the load gets too heavy, hand it to the Lord. You are not alone. Let Him carry you.