It’s a cute little phrase that sounds perfectly ‘christian’ and is used a lot.

If you don’t think about it too much you’ll probably nod your head and agree.

Because it sounds good.

It sounds nice.

It sounds legit.

But if you take the time to really think about this phrase, you will find that it is anything but true. As far as I know anyway, there is no biblical backup for it.

“God won’t give you more than you can carry.”

First of all the whole structure of the sentence seems to be a bit off. God is for us, not against us, so I’m not entirely convinced that the hardships in our lives are from God.  Jesus says:

The thief comes only to steal, kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life and have it to the full.    John 10:10

I think that God is ultimately in control though and the devil can’t do anything that God doesn’t first allow.  (Read the book of Job for an example of this)

So, why would God allow anything bad to happen to us? This seems to be a popular question as soon as bad things happen to good people.

Honestly though? I could never figure out why people struggle with this so much.

Isn’t it obvious?

First of all: We (even the good people) live in a fallen world, so why do we think we should be exempt from the consequences of that?

Second: Think about this: When did you grow the most spiritually? Was it in the good times? Or was it in the hard times?

The life I have lived has made me who I am today. It doesn’t matter if it was the choices I made, good and bad, or the things I had no control over, again good and bad, ALL played a part in who I am today.

However, it was those moments of hardship, when circumstances where completely out of my control. When life hit me hardest, those were the moments that brought me to the place of choosing:

God or bitterness.

If I choose God and allowed him to walk through it with me, it became so much easier, he somehow opened my eyes and allowed me to see the whole situation from everyone’s perspective instead of just my side of it. He gave me grace and love to pass on that I would never have found on my own. He changed my heart.

Got that?

He didn’t change my situation. He changed me!!

Before he did that, however, he brought me to the end of myself.

He gave me more then I could carry…  on my own.

How else are we going to learn to rely on him if we don’t first run out of our own strength and realize with brutal honesty that we can’t live this life without him?

If he never gives us more then we can carry, wouldn’t that mean we don’t need his help?

If we are never given more then we can carry, then why are there so many divorces? Suicides? Broken people? Hurting people?

I think its because life does throw more at us then we can carry. Thats why we need Jesus. When our trials become too heavy, when we feel hurt, lost, confused or whatever, he is there to help us through. He is there to carry our burdens that have become too heavy for us too carry alone.

To end on a positive note let me just say:

Life WILL break your heart.

Over and over again.

Yes, I know, that’s not very positive…

but this is…

Every single time (if you let him) Jesus will carefully put it back together and every time it will be just a bit more beautiful then it was before.