When you're gaining weight

I gained two pounds in England.

Just two pounds physically, nothing overwhelming. But the real weight I carried home was overwhelming.

Crushing.

2.83 BILLION unreached people have never heard the name of Jesus. I stared at the old world globe in our study, showed Dutch the 10-40 window. Shook my head, at a loss for words.  Sat on my front porch, stared across the street at our many neighbors who, as far as I know, do not know Christ. I began dreaming at night about one set of neighbors in particular, a same-sex couple who God so loved that He gave His only son.  Faces of family members wouldn’t leave my mind, and neither would these words from CS Lewis:

It may be possible for each to think too much of his own potential glory hereafter; it is hardly possible for him to think too often or too deeply about that of his neighbor. The load, or weight, or burden of my neighbor’s glory should be laid daily on my back, a load so heavy that only humility can carry it, and the backs of the proud will be broken.

It is a serious thing to live in a society of possible gods and goddesses, to remember that the dullest and most uninteresting person you talk to may one day be a creature which, if you saw it now, you would be strongly tempted to worship, or else a horror and a corruption such as you now meet, if at all, only in a nightmare.

All day long we are, in some degree, helping each other to one or other of these destinations. It is in the light of these overwhelming possibilities, it is with the awe and circumspection proper to them, that we should conduct all our dealings with one another, all friendships, all loves, all play, all politics. There are no ordinary people. You have never talked to a mere mortal. Nations, cultures, arts, civilization–these are mortal, and their life is to ours as the life of a gnat. But it is immortals whom we joke with, work with, marry, snub, and exploit–immortal horrors or everlasting splendors.

This does not mean that we are to be perpetually solemn. We must play. But our merriment must be of that kind (and it is, in fact, the merriest kind) which exists between people who have, from the outset, taken each other seriously–no flippancy, no superiority, no presumption. And our charity must be real and costly love, with deep feeling for the sins in spite of which we love the sinner–no mere tolerance or indulgence which parodies love as flippancy parodies merriment. Next to the Blessed Sacrament itself, your neighbor is the holiest object presented to your senses. (Weight of Glory)

Perhaps, then, gaining a little weight isn’t a bad thing? So long as we know where to roll it? ALL the weight belongs on the One who already bore our sins on the cross. No weight could ever compare to the weight of our sins … except for the even greater weight of love which held Him to the cross. Because of His finished work there is no weight which permanently should rest on our shoulders.

And yet, perhaps CS Lewis’ words are timely for us today? Perhaps he’s throwing us a lifeline from the sea of triviality which threatens to drown us each day?

Perhaps God wants us to be weighty but never overwhelmed…{More on that tomorrow}

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{Who might benefit from you gaining a bit of weight today? What immortal souls will you encounter and how can you help them along their journey to eternal glory? We affect all we meet in one way or another… Thank you for reading and God bless your day with glorious weight.}