It’s Not About Me
Melanie S. Fretz (Pennsylvania, USA)





TODAY'S READING
Galatians 6:7-10


THOUGHT FOR THE DAY
I will help bear someone’s burdens today.


PRAYER FOCUS
Those who are bullied in school






Bear one another’s burdens, and in this way you will fulfill the law of Christ. - Galatians 6:2 (NRSVUE)


My afternoon trip to the pool turned out to be anything but relaxing. A casual chat with a woman I didn’t know evolved into a horrific account of her son’s experiences with bullying at his middle school. He had been the victim of a vicious beating in a school bathroom. The story of this young teen’s awful ordeal was deeply disturbing. I didn’t want to hear the details, but I listened and tried to respond appropriately.

As I drove home trying to process what I had heard, I felt irritated that my relaxing afternoon had turned out to be a source of stress. As I was wishing I hadn’t even gone to the pool, I thought of a Bible verse that shifted my perspective. God asks us to bear one another’s burdens. God doesn’t specify that those burdens be just those of the people we know and love; God just tells us to bear them.

Perhaps the woman just needed someone to help carry her heavy load because the end of summer and the return to school was a time of angst for both her and her son. I don’t know nor do I need to know why she told me her story. God’s ways are higher than our ways. The afternoon wasn’t about me; it was about following God’s command.



TODAY'S PRAYER
Dear God, when we want to run and hide from all the unsettling news in the world, may we pause to consider whether we can instead choose to stay and help. Amen.