“Blessed be the Lord, who daily bears our burden, the God who is our salvation.” (See Psalm 68:19) God bless God. You know? Surely that’s possible. He does so much for us and asks so little in return. Follow Him. Is that hard? Why is this so rarely done? And we Christians aren’t much better at times. There are points where following Him doesn’t jive with following our own plans. At this juncture – where we should dump our own goals like a 10 pound sack of potatoes – we typically have God sit this one out as we blindly fumble through the motions in order to get ahead. Does that work? Sometimes, but it costs. Is it worth it? Never. God made the ultimate sacrifice. He came down and mingled with His people and then died for them. He bore our burden. Yet, here the world sits. A heap of self-possessed denial. (Add in a touch of “devil-possessed” in there somewhere, too!) It’s like you planted a garden. Seeded all sorts of beautiful vegetables and herbs. The thing grew and it was immaculate. Then, as you watched on – after you’ve tilled and watered and made sure everything was good to go – you see one cabbage head start to beat up the carrots. And you love those carrots! Then that cabbage gets other veggies to join in on the mayhem. Before long, the cabbage owns the joint and the carrots don’t know what to think. That cabbage head ruined what could have been an amazing place to behold. And in your mixture of anger and frustration, instead of taking a weed-eater to the whole mess, you step in the garden and build a wall between the cabbage and the carrots. Now, the carrots are gonna get a second chance. A clean slate. You saved the garden. Congrats. And if you think that was cool, imagine what Jesus did for the human race.