The Burden Is Light: Liberating Your Life from the Tyranny of Performance and Success

But a fast from comparison and a feast on biblical identity could move your life into a place of freedom and delight. You would be more present to those you love and begin to notice things happening around you.

But when we become obsessed with managing our existence to the point that we stop trusting God or depending on him, we enter the dangerous territory of seeking to become God ourselves.

He chose us before the foundation of the world, determined the time in history that we should live, placed us in our circumstances, and is working out his will in our lives.

I Am Accepted • I am God’s child. (John 1:12) • As a disciple, I am a friend of Jesus Christ. (John 15:15) • I have been justified. (Romans 5:1) • I am united with the Lord, and I am one with him in spirit. (1 Corinthians 6:17) • I have been bought with a price, and I belong to God. (1 Corinthians 6:19–20) • I am a member of Christ’s body. (1 Corin

Money creates space, comfort, and distance between the challenges and annoyances of life. It creates an illusory blanket of security around our place and position in the world.

When we trust God, we are not surrendering to chaotic forces or blind chance. We are surrendering to love. And that act of surrender allows us to be caught in an embrace that will never let us go.

This metaphor became central to Henri Nouwen’s faith. At the end of his life, Nouwen took a sabbatical and gave serious effort to learning the trapeze from a troupe of fliers. It may seem like an odd thing for a brilliant scholar to do, but given that his life was in many ways haunted by a struggle for control, it makes perfect sense.

Saint Ignatius of Loyola said that sin is an unwillingness to trust that what God wants is our deepest happiness. Until we are convinced of this, we will seek to control our own lives.

Obedience is about trust, and when we try to accomplish God’s will in our way, we practice a thinly veiled form of rebellion.