“The Heavy-Laden Soul”

This is a soundscape of my soul as I came to the Lord in prayer today. This is so often what my soul sounds like as I offer to the Lord – as a believer, as a priest, and as an institutional chaplain – all that I have absorbed in my ministry and all that I’ve bottled up within me of my own issues.

Today, as I sat at the console of the organ in the Chapel of Saints Mary and Martha of Bethany, this is what flowed out of me. I didn’t have to think about. I didn’t have to arrange it. All of the heartache that I hear and absorb daily, all of the sadness and frustration, all of the unanswered questions just rushed out of me like some sort of release/safety valve.

After I played this (I honestly don’t know why I happened to record it), I simply said “Amen” and felt so much better. All I could think of then were the words of Jesus in the eleventh chapter of Matthew’s Gospel (ESV), “28 Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. 29 Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. 30 For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.”

And I finally rested.