Sometimes a blessing feels like a burden, doesn’t it?⁣

A newborn baby.⁣
A demanding job.⁣
A house under renovation.⁣
A gift of discernment.⁣
A spouse with strongly-held opinions who works long hours and is heavily involved in community outreach.⁣

Okay, that last one might just be me.

Point being, it’s hard for our human nature to bear that kind of weight with grace.⁣

It’s heavy!⁣
It’s frustrating!⁣
It’s annoying!⁣

But God knows.

Whenever I catch myself whining about the work involved in carrying a blessing (which is more often than I care to admit), this is what the Holy Spirit brings to mind:⁣

“Bilbo thought his lot was wearisomely heavy, and did not at all like the idea of trudging for miles and miles with all that on his back. ‘Don’t you worry!’ said Thorin. ‘It will get lighter all too soon. Before long I expect we shall all wish our packs heavier, when the food begins to run short.’”⁣

JRR Tolkien, “The Hobbit”

Thought it was going to be Scripture, didn’t you? God lives in all creation, y’all; He’s not limited to the Bible.⁣

This bit from The Hobbit flies past in the story, but it has stuck with me for decades. It makes me wonder what I’d do if the blessing—this thing I’m miserably grumbling about—was suddenly gone, taken away or never mine to begin with.⁣

The answer is almost always grief.⁣

The blessing can be a burden. No one’s saying otherwise.

But remember, too, that the burden IS a blessing. And we can choose how we carry it: complaining about its weight or grateful that it exists at all.