My Bundle of Troubles

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Episode Transcript

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Thank you for joining me. I'mRabbi David Lyon from Congregation Both Israel in
Houston. There's a story that helpsus understand that there's no life without troubles,
and Jewish folklore highlights the fact withglimpses into stead of life. Those
small villages where our Jewish ancestors spentyears and decades in Eastern Europe. Mostly

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those shuttles were places where nothing buttroubles were usually found. In one story,
a woman who carried troubles around withher every day on her nothing more
than we relieved of her worries andwoes. Naturally, she visited her rabbi.
There, she unloaded all her troublesand asked for relief. He told
her to go home, to putall her troubles into a bundle, and

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returned to his home later that day. She did just as he said.
Later that day, she carried herheavy, burdensome bundle of troubles over her
shoulder as she made her way intothe rabbi's house. As she neared his
house and stepped in, she sawthat it was full of people carrying their
bundles too Slowly entering, the rabbiwelcomed her warmly and immediately instructed her to

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exchange her bundle of troubles for anyoneelse's in the room. Delighted by the
possibility, she set down her bundleand looked for the smallest bundles she could
find. Naturally, the smallest bundlemust contain the smallest troubles. She found
the smallest bundle and opened it tosee what it contained. Oddly, it

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was full of tragedy and pain,the likes of which she had never known.
How could such a small bundle holdsuch trouble? She moved on to
the next bundle, which was alittle bigger than the first one. It
also contained terrible poverty, hunger,and woe. Each bundle she looked into,
though still smaller than her own,was filled with great horrors, deep
sorrow, unmitigated woe. She beganto think of her own bundle, and

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when she turned to find it,it looked oddly smaller. She rubbed her
her eyes, but as she walkedto it, she saw that it had
indeed grown smaller, and when shepicked it up it was lighter too.
She gazed around the room one lasttime, through her bundle over her shoulder,
made her way out the door,and when happily even skipping a little
bit all the way home. Thestory is about finding perspective, which isn't

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easy to do, even if themoral of the story is clear. Some
days we'd all like to trade ourbundles of trouble for someone else's. It's
human nature to want to do it, and that's why we need moral stories.
The first example of such human naturetakes us all the way back to
Moses. Moses led a bundle ofcomplaining and stiff necked is or ly to

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murmured behind his back, build agolden, golden calf to worship, and
defied his authority at nearly every turn. When Moses learned that he himself wouldn't
be permitted to enter the promised Land, he raged before God. He pleaded,
how is it that they, astiff necked and unfaithful people, may
cross the sea and enter the land, But I, your faithful servant,

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whom you singled out by name,will not be rewarded. The unspoken message
in moses plea was a cry forjustice. In effect, he said to
God, why are my deeds notworthy of your greatest blessing? God said
to Moses. In Hebrew we reada tad domel chachenra. It means you're

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like a bad neighbor. You seeonly what goes in, but not what
goes out, which is another wayof saying you see only their income but
not their expenses. The midrash cheachesthat we human beings are unable to see
the full picture. And we walkby our neighbor's house, whom we presume
to be living the life of riley, we would see only the facade,

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but not the experience is happening inside. There's no household without its issues,
its troubles, and its pain.Behind closed doors, there are joys,
but also sorrows. There is prosperity, but also adversity. There's confidence,
but also insecurity. What's more,God said to Moses, you maligned my

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people. You see, God neededMoses to learn that only God is God.
Only God can know everything. OnlyGod can judge the people's deeds and
also their intentions. The pain thatMoses felt is not unlike our own.
When we feel that our deeds shouldhave earned us greater blessings than we received

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in that moment, when we recallour own pain, we stand in the
same place Moses did, and likehim, we listen attentively to God's reply.
But let's not despair in our humanness. Judaism embraces human limitations, but
it also celebrates them. In purecaa vote attractation known as Sayings of the

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Fathers, we learn it is onething to be loved, It is another
thing to know that you are loved. The tea is about human consciousness.
The glory of being human is tobe loved by God and to be consciously
aware of that love. The giftof life is granted to every living thing

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on earth. But what other creatureis aware of its own creation or aware
of its creator's love for that creation? Only human beings, if they are
willing, can be so fully consciousand aware of its creator's presence. In
times of joy, we can beaware of our creator's presence. When we

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express gratitude and effect, we aresaying something larger than myself is also a
participant, a contributor to the joythat I've come to know, or the
success that I've reached. If wesay that it's only because of me,
only because of what I did frommyself, that I am successful and joyful,
that we miss a large part that'sfound in the relationship that we can

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have with that which is larger thanus, namely with God. Likewise,
in times of sorrow or challenges,if we only lash out and blame others
for what we have to endure andconfront, we miss out on the opportunity
that God or others are parts ofour support system and network of help.

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God is all that we need intimes of great sorrow or even tragedy.
God is a source of support andhelp and healing when we discover what else
God created in us to help usovercome those terrible times. Despite this glorious
gift of life and consciousness, Istill can't tell you why we suffer as
we do unless we bring it uponourselves. I also can't tell you why

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bad things happen to good people,but it's been that way since time immemorial,
and likewise, there are lessons tolearn from adversity too. I can
only tell you that God, inall God's greatness, is not a king
on a throne who pulls the stringsof human life or causes any of us
to suffer. By the mid twentiethcentury, Jewish theologians submitted that a better

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way to understand God is as anunconditionally loving parent. This way God's love.
God loves God's creations unconditionally. Eventhough God, like a parent,
cannot necessarily save us from harm orprevent us from stepping into harm's way.
God is all knowing and all present. But God doesn't need to be all

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powerful. If we retain the powerto choose how we will respond to joy
and sorrow, how we will choosegood or evil, and alternately, how
we will transform our fate into somethingof greater meaning. Though Moses didn't make
it into the Promised Land, theMidrash, that is, the rabbinic interpretation,

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teaches us that he was nevertheless greatlyblessed with three gifts. First,
God showed Moses the future of theIsraelites and the Promised Land, showing him
north, southeast, and west.It was a sight to be. Second,
God showed remarkable compassion to Moses atthe time of his death by granting
Moses the hope of eternal life.It was the promise of eternal life that

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an enable Moses to permit his soulto depart his body. And Third,
Torah records Moses as the greatest prophetwho ever lived. For us, the
future that exists beyond the boundary ofour lifetime is found in the quality of
our deeds too, as we've beentaught a good name endures beyond the grave.

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For us, the hope for eternallife is a reflection of the faith
we build in this life and takewith us after it ends. And for
us, the name that we earn, though it won't be as great as
Moses, can be a testament toour indelible acts of faith and goodness we
perform in our lifetime. Just becausewe are human, we all will likely

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carry with us a bundle of troublethere goes heavier or lighter over time as
we walk our intended path in lifeand with faith. Judaism provides us hope
that despite it all, God isaware of us like an unconditionally loving parent,
and we, even when we struggle, can find that our journey is
made easier with God's help, whichaccompanies us in this world and beyond it.

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It's my hope that as the weakunfolds, you'll find that perhaps the
bundle you've been carrying around is thesame bundle, but perhaps it will be
lighter than when you first picked itup and I believe that it's possible to
discover that reality when we change ourperspective and learn from that moral story.

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I can't tell you how many peoplecome into my office with whom I speak
and other clergies speak to and discover. Perhaps it's been your experience that when
we unload and share the burden thatwe're feeling, we discover that in perspective,
not only is it still ours,but it's not more than we can

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bear, and not because God doesn'tgive us more than we can handle,
or that there's a reason for everything. Sometimes we feel exactly that way,
that God has given us much morethan we can deal with, and there
must be a reason why we're sufferingthe way that we are that we don't
understand completely. But once we've articulatedthat, we can put it aside and
focus on the matter in front ofus and discover that some of the challenges

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we see are not as large asthey really appear to be. And certainly
we don't want to trade our troublesfor somebody else's. Ours are enough,
you might say. But with propersupport networks helpers in our life, we
understand that asking for help is nota sign of weakness. Actually, asking

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for help is a sign of strength, because your desire to overcome these challenges
and find your way again on astronger, more sturdy path is actually a
great reflection of your commitment to choosinglife every day. But why do people
suffer despite their faithfulness and goodness?It is part of human nature. There

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is no life that is perfect,there's no life that is completely protected just
because of religion. As I've taughtyou before, an anonymous speaker made the
comment that religion is for those whoare afraid of going to hell, and
spirituality is for those who have beenthere. You see, religion appears to

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be a shield from everything that mighthurt us, but it isn't and it
can't be. Spirituality, which isa quest, a searching or wrestling with
matters of faith, and God toohelps us to discover that in the midst
of our grief and troubles, ifwe wrestle a bit and seek, we

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might find our way out of itand find meaning from the experience as well.
And we don't have to be afraidof a place like hell, because
we can create our own hell onearth. But to be spiritual means that
we're constantly seeking meaning in times ofjoy without taking it for granted, and
times of sorrow to know that ittoo is simply part of the human experience.

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Finding meaning is an important part ofthat search. And if at the
end of it we discover that ourbundle is a little lighter, it might
be because we discover that that hurtor that suffering and those challenges are actually
something that we're up to, thatwe can lift them and bring them with
us, ultimately resolving them along theway through meaning, not just by repressing

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them or handing them over to somebodyelse to resolve, but by discovering that
we have internal strength and qualities andskills to address them with meaning, maturity,
and ultimately as a source of peace. We grow from them. Our
skin grows thicker, our scars healover, and we are the product of

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our life experience. It's certainly myhope, as it would be for anybody,
that our life experience would be filledwith mostly joy. But if there
are troubles along the way, don'tdespair. Know that the power of human
experience is to be aware of Godas our creator, as not a king
who sits on a throne in heaven, but rather an unconditionally loving parent who

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is a source of everything that weneed. And if we are grateful for
God's presence in our life, thenwe can also seek God as a source
of what we need in times ofchallenge. To to listen again or share
this message with others, please findit at my podcast called Heart to Heart
with Rabbi David Lyon. You canfind that at sunny com are on the

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iHeartMedia app, And so Rabbi ina congregation in the Southwest, I hear
so much that sometimes we don't hearabout in other parts of the country or
the world. But it doesn't meanthat we aren't listening and hoping for the
very same things every single day,more happiness and joy, less worries,
troubles and woes. But once welook into our bundle, it's always a

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matter of owning what we have andnot truly wishing to have anybody else's troubles.
We have enough to bear, enoughto grow on, and certainly enough
to hope that as we continue togrow, mature and make our way,
there will be greater joy and certainlymore meaning and more enduring peace for us
and all who are touched by ourlife. So as we make our way

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and celebrate Father's Day two, andthe summer heat continues to persist. Let's
be careful about what we wish for. Let's be sure that we put things
into perspective and find in God's presencemany reasons to no joy, meaning and
peace. Thank you for joining metoday. I look forward to being with
you again next time.