I am closing in on 5 months since my back surgery and overall I am doing very good.  I must admit I have been a little bit sore the last couple of days.  I think I over did it on Saturday.  I woke up at 5 a.m. and finished working on my sermon for Sunday in time to go to the YMCA with my wife at 8.  While she was in her Zumba class, I spent 45 minutes on the treadmill.  This is twice as long as I have been going during the week.  After that we went to IKEA.  IKEA is Swedish for “How much further is it?”  I can answer that with another Swedish word – “ooph!”  That is a little known word meaning “too much”.  At least that’s what I think it means because after spending two and a half hours traipsing around in IKEA I was saying “ooph” several times during the day and a few times during the night after we left that place.  I think my discomfort was not related so much to the walking as it was to the bending & stooping  I did while chasing my 18 month old granddaughter through that place-ooph!  Too much!  I stretched muscles and tendons that had not been used in almost 5 months.  It has been 4 days since that big adventure in IKEA and I feel a lot better now.  But as I reflect on my experience from this past weekend I know that there are some people who are facing pain and discomfort and stresses and situations that are far worse than the nagging aches that made me say “ooph” this weekend.  For some of them they are at the point where they really are saying, “TOO MUCH!”  Some of them are distressed and discourage to the point that they are not sure if they can go on any longer.  Maybe you know someone in a situation like that or maybe you yourself could raise your hand and say, “That’s me.”  I want you to know that the Lord stands ready to comfort you and minister to you.  Jesus said in Matthew 11:28

“Come to Me, all who are weary and heavy-laden, and I will give you rest.”

The Lord invites us to come to Him, without fear of rejection.  Some people are reluctant to come to Him, they say, “You don’t know how bad I’ve been.  I have done too much!”  Oh my friend, when it comes to forgiveness, it does not matter what you’ve done or how much.  There is nothing that is too much.  The bible says in 1 John 1:9

“If we confess our sin, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sin and cleanse us of all unrighteousness.”

There is no such thing as too much!  Jesus offers us forgiveness, He offers us Grace, He offers us all we need in this world and in the next one – if we only come to Him!  Jesus invites us to come and to lay our burdens down and never pick them up again.  He promises to strengthen us and help us endure any situation we may be facing.  All power and authority has been given unto Him, no task is impossible, no problem is “too much”.  Christ promises to meet our needs, and give us rest.  I don’t know about you, but that sounds like a pretty good invitation to me.

If you would like to know more about a personal relationship with Jesus Christ, you can send me an email directly at pastorpstephens@aol.com