It was only when the old man could walk no more, and lay down for the last time that he told young Simon of his secret. In their last few hours together, he gave Simon not only the answer to the riddle of the basket he carried, but the answer to why men toil as they do.
In this basket,” Thomas said, “these are the burdens and all of the things I believe about myself which were not true. They are the stones that weighed down my journey. On my back I have carried the weight of every pebble of doubt, every grain of the sand of uncertainty, and every millstone of misdirection I have collected on my life’s journey. Without these, I could have gone so far. I could have lived the life of dreams I saw in my mind. But with them, I have ended up here, at the end of my journey.” With that, the old man closed his eyes and quietly went to sleep for the last time.
Simon gently took the basket off the old man’s back and placed it on the ground. Later that day he untied each of the cords that held the woven cover in place and lifted the lid off. Perhaps because he had been looking for an answer to his own question, he was not surprised by what he found inside.
The basket, which had weighed down the old man for so long, was empty.
The significance of this story is not complicated. The old man had allowed himself to stay within his comfort zone, he held within himself the perceptions of others about himself which was internally justified and he reacted to others outwardly as a person without purpose and hope.
By moving out of your comfort zone in manageable steps and conquering your inner self (remember ~ what is in your boat), your outer self will project a more confident person; you will develop a more meaningful purpose in life and become a master of your own destiny and serve God with purpose.
Remember: Jesus is hope, Jesus gives us purpose, and remember
Matthew 11 v 28.30.
Walk with Jesus out of your comfort zone in small manageable steps, take hold of His hand, and travel the exciting journey He has planned for you.
Now try the Rucksack Exercise
Firstly find a quiet space and relax and reflect on your experiences that resulted in self-doubt, feelings of being burdened, negative self talk, and possibly other people’s issues or what they negatively say about you and how it makes you feel.
Now imagine that you are carrying a rucksack. There’s nothing in it at the moment, so it is very light.
Now for everything you thought imagine a piece of paper with that thought has been dropped into your rucksack.
Imagine you are walking around the room reciting those experiences on your back
Your rucksack is probably feeling quite heavy now. Really, imagine how that feels.
Now take your imaginary rucksack off – and imagine how light that feels.
A question for you…. Ask yourself why do I carry them around?
Alternative exercise, if you have a rucksack available do the above exercise first, this time write your experience and thoughts down on a sheet of paper. NOW instead of imagining your thoughts put a rock or pebble in your rucksack for everything you wrote on the paper.
NOW put the rucksack on, its suitably heavy, ok you can either stop at this point and realise you are carrying too much around with you. Or for a short time determined by you walk around with the rucksack and those rocks or pebbles around, it´s heavy and by this time you are thinking why why am I carrying this around.
Once you have completed the exercise go back to the bible verse at the beginning of this blog Matthew 11 v 28-30. Really meditate on this and imagine you are sitting at the feet of Jesus and He tells you to give everything to Him. Look at the smile on His face as he takes all the cares, worries, burdens, self-doubt etc away from you and now how light and free you feel.
Remember the rucksack containing all your experiences will always be there, so you don’t need to carry it about every day of your life. Firstly give it t Jesus and f you do pick the rucksack up don’t beat yourself up most of us do this but remember leave it at home occasionally.
REMEMBER TO LEAVE YOUR RUCKSACK AT HOME FROM TIME TO TIME.
Hope you have found this of use and your journey forward is lighter.
Removing Barriers Releasing Potential 