Once upon a time, a poor man walked from town to town. He carried a heavy load on his back.

One day a wagon driver stopped his horse and offered him a ride to the next town. The grateful man said “Yes, thank you for your kindness.”

After they had gone a few minutes, the wagon driver turned around. He saw the poor man still carried the load on his back.

“You don’t need to carry that heavy load. You can put it down on the wagon.”

The poor man, “You’ve been so kind to pick me up. I can’t ask you to carry my load as well.

So the poor man kept walking from town to town, carrying and hobbling around with his heavy load.

We can lighten up

Too often we are like the poor wandering man. We carry the heavy load of anger, of regret, of grudges long after we could have set them down. 

God is like the wagon driver who says we don’t have to carry them alone. God can handle them. Indeed, God can lift us up and carry us to the next stop on our journey.

This story was originally told by the traveling Jewish mystical preacher, the Magid of Dubnow. 

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