I’m Picking Up What You’re Putting Down

I love the phrase, “I’m picking up what you’re putting down” there are so many thoughts that it brings to mind. As I was reading the daily Bible passages assigned for the day, it included Luke 9 where Jesus says that we must pick up our cross daily. I thought about how we were not meant to carry our cross alone. God designed us to have an abundant life, one that is fully alive. Part of that abundant, fully alive life includes the reality that we would be going through this life together not only with Him, but with other followers of Him, and with those that have yet to meet Him. So with the phrase, “I’m picking up what you’re putting down” is the idea that we are not alone. When someone’s burden is too heavy I can help. I can pick up what they put down. That got me thinking about more ways this phrase can be used.

As a mom, I can say that I am quite literally picking up what my kids are putting down all day, but then as I thought about the attitude that I have sometimes when I am picking up after my kids I realized that I am also putting things down for others to pick up. When I snap at my husband, slam a cupboard door a little harder than I should (I guess I probably shouldn’t be slamming cupboard doors to begin with…it doesn’t really matter how hard I do it), say something that I know I shouldn’t and when I take extra time to text a friend, hug my kids, or turn off the television, I am putting something down that those around me might pick up. So I need to be mindful that what I am putting down can either help or hurt. It can be a truth or a lie.  It can lighten someone’s load or increase it.  It can teach people about the God that I know and love or it can leave people wondering if I know God at all.

The whole verse in Luke 9:23 says, “And he said to all, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me.” The idea of denying myself means there may be times I have to put down all the things I am carrying in order to pick up what Jesus is asking me to pick up. Each day I have hundreds of little and sometimes big decisions that require me to be mindful of what I am currently carrying that I need to put down, what someone else has just knowingly or unknowingly laid in front of me and whether it’s something I need to pick up or leave alone.

I don’t know about you, but I always think I can carry or “pick up” more than I can or should?   For example, I usually try to carry in too many groceries from the car.  As soon as I turn off the car after pulling into the driveway, I begin a real life version of Tetris; where if I put the bags in my arms in just the right way I can clear a whole row of groceries from the car.  Then if I do make it to the front door I usually find myself “jumping barrels” like the little man in Donkey Kong all while balancing my “oh so cleverly” stacked load. With victory in sight, just when I think I’ve done it…my husband appears asking if he can help.  Does he not know that I just played a round of Tetris and Donkey Kong just to get to this point and now the art of trying to pass off the groceries in a way that doesn’t take down my whole elaborate stack is more than my “mom brain” can handle…and then I’ve really done it. I’ve just put down something he will pick up that I didn’t plan on. Something I will have to help him put down later when I apologize and seek his forgiveness, and I have left him wondering why I am so stressed and not more appreciative of his offer. It was just groceries right.  The problem is that I do this same kind of thing with other areas in my life. I say yes when I should say no.  I allow what I am doing to have more weight than who I am being.  I struggle as I attempt to keep all the balls of life in the air and then when one falls I feel like I a failure.  I don’t like to fail, who does right?

Then there are times when we have been called on to carry things that God never designed us to have to carry, but because of sin we carry it with us, something that we ultimately need Jesus to carry for us. Things like pain, sin, sickness and death. Putting down a loved ones hand after we have said our final goodbye, picking up a loved ones things for the last time after they have passed away, carrying each other as we learn to deal with grief and loss.  Those are things God did not want us to ever have to pick up, put down or carry with us, but Adam and Eve chose to pick up the fruit and then Jesus chose to pick up His cross. So until Jesus returns, we do what we need or are called on to do. We pick up what He calls us to pick up. We put down what we hope will lead people to the truth. We carry too much and go through the process of learning how to let others carry our load for us, and we wait. We wait for the day…when Jesus will pick us up and carry us to God…having taken out of our hands…and forever “putting down”…the sin, death and evil that is in this world so that we never have to carry it’s burden again.
Are you picking up what I’m putting down?