ARE YOU LOADED?

Neal Pollard

You might think that is a “loaded question.”  Well, take a load off and consider.  Being “loaded” means different things.  The term is used to describe the intoxicated and the income of the wealthy.  It can refer to something with ulterior motive or meaning.  Yet, if you are a Christian you are loaded.  Such is the thought of the inspired Psalmist who said, “Blessed be the Lord, who daily loads us with benefits, the God of our salvation! (Ps. 68:19a).

Dan Wheeler, fine gospel preacher in Orlando, Florida, says, “When a grocery cashier asked me how I was, I said, ‘I’m loaded.  With benefits.’  Now, when I ask her, she says, ‘I’m loaded.  With benefits.’  Maybe it will get someone thinking about God.”  Human nature is so prone to see our liabilities rather than our “loads.”  Helen Steiner Rice, in her famous poem “Count Your Gains, Not Your Losses,” says in part,

As we travel down life’s busy road, complaining of our heavy load,
We often think God’s been unfair and gave us much more than our share
Of little daily irritations and disappointing tribulations.
We’re discontented with our lot and all the “bad breaks” that we got;
We count our losses, not our gain, and remember only tears and pain.
The good things we forget completely when God looked down and blessed us sweetly.

The overall point of her poem is that we can lose sight of our own woes if we will lose ourselves in service to others.  However, a secondary emphasis she makes is that God has given us so much.  It is a matter of the heart and one’s character whether we see ourselves as “winners” or “losers” in life.

Today, Mike Hite and I went to visit the McCullums.  Steve is to begin school next week.  He and his sweet wife Jerri made an unexpected detour to the hospital.  Steve has a mass in his abdomen and no clear diagnosis yet.  Doctors have told him to include as a possibility that this is very serious.  Yet, though he was in discomfort and facing the unknown, he was faith-filled and positive.  This remarkable young man, after citing James 1:2-4, says, “I’m excited to see what God is going to do through this.  This is going to make me a better, more understanding, preacher and Christian.”  Steve is loaded and he knows it.  For those of us not laying in a hospital bed awaiting test results, we are loaded, too!

Other versions put for “loads us with benefits” that he “bears us up” or “carries us in His arms.”  Same difference!  With divine support and aid, I am “loaded with benefits” more than this world could match or exceed.  Let us focus on what we have with God and not what we do not have.  Thank you, Steve and Jerri!