The Weight of Glory (2) Weight Limits

“For momentary, light affliction is producing for us an eternal weight of glory far beyond all comparison” 2 Corinthians 4:17

Light – “All Trucks Stop At Scales”.  Drive the highways long enough and you are sure to see a sign like this.  Why do all trucks have to stop at the scales?  Why do they even care about how much a truck weighs?  We zoom right by the lines of eighteen-wheelers, never thinking a thing about it.  Not any more.  After today, every time you pass a truck scale you will remember:  there’s a weight limit to life.

Elaphros is the Greek word for “light”.  It really means, “easy to bear”.  It’s not a quantitative measure.  It’s a qualitative one.  On God’s truck scale it doesn’t matter how many pounds the cargo weighs.  It only matters how easy it is to carry.

Trucks stop at scales because road taxes are attributable to gross hauling weight.  It has nothing to do with how much the truck can pull.  It is all about how much the truck is licensed to pull.  It’s a tax issue.

God doesn’t measure the weight either.  He measures the weight limit that we allow Him to carry for us.  That’s what Jesus had in mind when he said, “My yoke is easy and my burden is light (same word)”  Matthew 11:30.  Light afflictions are burdens that Jesus carries for us.  The reason they are light has nothing to do with the total tonnage.  The reason they are light is because He makes it easy to lift our side of the yoke.

The world wants you to try to carry the load.  The enemy knows you can’t but he is masterful at convincing you that you should.  After all, it’s embarrassing to admit we can’t manage.  It’s humiliating to confess we are failing.  It’s demeaning to ask for help.  You can do it!  Just try harder (and fall harder).  Jesus waits at the truck scales, ready to make a qualitative difference.  But we go right on measuring the tonnage.

Life has a weight limit.  God knows exactly what your weight limit is.  He made you.  He never expects you to carry more than the design was intended to bear.  And in His engineering plan, your limit should always be “easy to bear”.

Is it?  If you feel the extra tonnage, maybe you missed the scales.