From Limbo to Exaltation

Sometimes you feel stuck. Like you are making no progress. Like you are trudging along a grey and gloomy rock bottom – walking around and around in your trench of bad habits. You know that there is a way out– by climbing up and over the ledge, but that seems impossible to do. You know you want to get out, and that you hate what you're doing. You know that you should just stop walking and reach up, but right now, you're stuck in a trance. In a state of limbo, wanting to be out, but stuck at the same rhythmic pace, trudging along. Step, after step, after step... going nowhere. At least... that's what it feels like. But, as I've come to see, it's not like that. Actually, it's exactly the opposite. Let me explain.

In my New Testament class we read this scripture: Matthew 11:28-30

28 Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.

29 Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls.

30 For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.

When I first heard this scripture, I was confused. How is it that the Savior of the entire world, Jesus Christ, who atoned for each and every sin for every person who has ever lived and will ever live, able to say that His burden is light? How is it that He who bled at every pore under the pressure of suffering the penalty and the pain of every sin, bad feeling, wrong-doing, and injustice can say that His yoke is easy?


I asked my New Testament teacher this question and he just stood there for a minute. Then he smiled and marveled at the question and just repeated it back to me. He then showed me a different way to think about it. He said, "It seems like he is talking about the eternal blessings and consequences of sin and following His commandments. Addiction is not easy; sin is not easy; they shackle you down with chains. What is easy, is feeling those burdens removed from you."

Jesus doesn't say, 'Just give me your burdens and I will do all of the work'. No, He asks us to take on extra responsibility. To take His yoke upon us. To carry the burden with Him. After all, the burden He is carrying was ours to begin with. This yoke that Jesus wants us to take on is to put him first in our lives. To us, it may seem impossible to take on extra responsibility. How can I take on more, when I cannot even do right with what I have now? Seems counter-intuitive right? Well, that's what faith is for.

Faith is giving your all to God even when you don't know what "all" is. Faith is saying, I don't know exactly how you are going to have me accomplish this thing you have asked me to do, but I'm going to try my hardest and do it anyways. We show our faith in Jesus Christ when we stop preoccupying ourselves with our weaknesses, trials, and shortcomings and start to put Him first in our life. We can do this by serving others, praying, reading our scriptures, making an actual effort to schedule meaningful time to do these things, and reflecting often on the abundant blessings that the Lord bestows upon us. Ezra Taft Benson once said, "When we put God first, all other things fall into their proper place or dropout of our lives."

Just when we think that we cannot take on any more, that the albatross around our neck might make us crack under the pressure, when we think that we will forever reside in our rut in rock bottom, Jesus says: reach up and I will show you the way out – higher than you can see or imagine.