My mom asked me last night what I would write about in Common Grounds today.  I told her I was writing about how life in this world is a constant burden, shared severally by all people.  “Does that sound inspiring?” I asked.  “Well,” she replied, “I guess that depends on how you put it!”  Mothers can be so supportive.  Nevertheless, that is the message of my column this month.  Life is burdensome.  So good morning, happy Monday, pick up your share of the burden and move on. 

What I really mean is that each of us bears a burden, we each “carry a cross”.  As we move through life in this world, each accomplishment takes a toll on us.  The day to day tasks are heavy, they lean on us.  And if there is anything worth accomplishing, odds are it will lay heavy across your shoulders for quite some time.  How will you bear up under the burdens of the world?  Who will be your help?  The burden of your life is yours alone—but perhaps you will find yourself particularly suited to bear it. 

I have come off of active duty orders with the Army.  I no longer work each day in military uniform.  I am returning to the University of Virginia and the high-minded academic pursuits therein (notice the high-minded tone and language of that very sentence!).  It is back to the burden of culling ancient Christian texts in their original languages and fishing the minds of the early Christian theologians and leaders for some keys to understanding how Christ revealed Himself to them and how it impacted their mind, their work, their world...

But this weekend I did put on the uniform again. 

As a chaplain, I am often needed to fulfill ceremonial roles in formal settings.  I said the invocation and benediction at two “Welcome Home Warrior Citizen” ceremonies.  Our Soldiers were honored not only for their work in Iraq over the past year, but for their courage in removing themselves from the civilian world, putting on the uniform and bearing of the military world, and then returning to the civilian world once again.  It can be a big leap. 

My guys are back to being what they are out of military uniform:  salesmen, teachers, police officers, administrators, detention officers, etc., etc.  Many are back to their cubicle or office.  Back to their desk and their email and their emoticons.  Back to collating the weekly reports.  And each job is a burden.  A role they must play carrying a burden day by day to keep the world going.  Not like the burden of Soldiering, but a burden nonetheless.   

John Baillie writes in his Diary of Daily Prayer, “O Lord of the vineyard, I beg Thy blessing upon all who truly desire to serve Thee by being diligent and faithful in their several callings, bearing their due share of the world’s burden, and going about their daily tasks in all simplicity and uprightness of heart.  For all who tend flocks or till the soil; For all who work in factories or mines; For all who buy and sell in the market place; For all who labour with their brains; For all who labour with their pens; For all who tend the hearth; Dear Lord, I pray.” 

Two weeks ago, my wife and I attended the Kenny Chesney concert here in Charlottesville.  Part of our celebration of the end of fourteen months of active duty with the Army.  My mind was caught up imagining the lives of some of Kenny’s entourage.  There was one particularly gifted musician up there on stage.  He moved from guitar to violin to mandolin with ease.  I bet you can’t find his name anywhere, but he made that music happen.  I found myself very grateful to him.  Grateful that he chose to pursue music.  Grateful that he worked to polish and nurture his gifts.  Grateful that he would come to my little town away from home and family and play his instruments for me for my entertainment and ease the burden of my life a bit with the joy of his music.  Kenny’s not to shabby either, but that’s obvious and he gets his reward! 

There is a burden associated with every great pursuit.  How many times that guy must have been told to put down his instruments and get a normal job.  To find his place in cubicle collating TPS reports with the new cover for the memo.  But he refused, and likely suffered and sacrificed to pursue music.  A burden to him that lightens mine. 

The next week I found out that a kid that I had been counselor to at camp years ago is in a successful rock band called Florez.  Dana Brewster was one of those guys that you really worried about.  He was in trouble a lot when he was a kid.  Smoking.  Messing around.  I just tried to keep him from getting kicked out and get him to go to the talks when a speaker would share something of the Gospel with him.  Now there he is.  Pursuing music.  Carrying his burden each day, for which he was magnificently and particularly fashioned and lightening the load of all of us through music.   

So, just try to make sense of this column!  I didn’t mean it as a riddle, but it has sort of turned out that way.  It’s Monday morning.  Take up your burden.  Hopefully it is one that you have chosen, but maybe it has just been laid across your shoulders for a time.  And may the Lord lighten each of our yokes every time we come to Him.