Jesus Supports Us Always.

As humans, it's always so easy to focus on ourselves and put our needs first. We think that once we sort our crap out, we'll be in a better mindset and therefore be better able to help other people and meet their needs. I do believe that there's some validity to that but at the same time, focusing only on our own needs can become consuming and dangerous.

Over the last month and a half of the school year that just ended, I found myself constantly thinking about some of the situations in my life and ending up digging myself into a hole. In this hole, my anxiety took over with great force, constantly reminding me how broken my life, and the situations in it, truly are. For a couple of weeks I stopped talking to people about these situations because I didn't want to burden them with the brokenness of my life. I felt very alone with my problems. If I was feeling that way, how many other people may have been in that same boat?

Self-care is definitely important, however I think there's something to be said about sometimes letting your needs go by the wayside in order to support and help someone who really needs you. The Bible reminds us of this by saying, "Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others." {Philippians 2:4}

A Christian YouTuber whom I really admire tweeted this a couple of months back:

As soon as I read that tweet, something inside me said 'you need to save this, think about it often, and write a blog post about it.' So hi. I'm here.

As previously mentioned, I totally understand the feeling of not wanting to burden other people when you're going through something tough. But as Christians it's important to note that Galatians 6:2 says, "Bear one another's burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ." The law of Christ? The law? The??? Law??? Guys. It's literally a command from God for us to share in the burdens that our friends are carrying. 

The second half of Chelsea's tweet reminds us of the constant support we have from Christ. And if we're truly longing to live as Christians or "little Christs" if you will, shouldn't it already be our heart's desire to support people through the good, bad, and ugly? 

God hasn't designed us to live in isolation; He created the body of Christ because He knew that we were going to need each other to make it in this broken world. And let's face it. We ourselves, are always going to be in a place where we need support from the Lord and from other people, so we should expect that others are always going to be needing our support, advice, and listening ear. So let's be willing to bear the burdens of others.

After all, Jesus always bears ours.