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[“Come to me, all you who labor and are burdened,
and I will give you rest.
Take my yoke upon you and learn from me,
for I am meek and humble of heart;
and you will find rest for yourselves.
For my yoke is easy, and my burden light.”] (Mt 11:28-30)

How does one go forward in the spiritual life? By just trying harder to be a good person? Not at all. In order to move forward in the spiritual life we must fall backward into the love of Jesus.  In order to grow in our spiritual lives we must shrink into the arms of our loving God.

No matter how hard we try, we just can’t be that “perfect” follower of Jesus. We will always fall short on our own. Too many things get in the way. The stresses of life consume us.  Jesus encourages His disciples and us to take up His easy yoke and light burden, and to give Him our difficult yokes and heavy burdens.

Our spiritual life is not entirely “separate” from the other aspects of our life.  It’s all intimately connected and so the physical can affect the spiritual.  So a question Jesus might be asking you today is, “What’s bothering you?”

…Difficulties with coworkers, anxiety about  family gatherings, overwhelming work load, death of a loved one, frightening medical diagnosis, etc…

Talk to Jesus about it. Give it all to Him in prayer. Listen to what He says back, and allow Him to do the heavy lifting. Our spiritual life is not about trying harder. It’s about handing over and letting Jesus carry you forward.