The Weight

As I was walking in to my friendly neighborhood Starbucks this morning, the song that was drifting across the parking lot was The Weight by The Band. It’s one of those songs that you probably think that you don’t know, but you have probably heard. The lyric that catches everyone’s attention is in the chorus where it says “take a load off, Fanny…”.

The song is one of those late 60’s “artistic” endeavors that played with surrealism and protest, however, it got me to thinking. Jesus is like the person telling the story in the song. He keeps running into people who have other things to do; things that don’t provide the same level of comfort or security as the story teller. Everyone is running around with an agenda, but He is there to help take our load.

When Robbie Robertson (or perhaps Levon Helms, the writing credit is disputed) wrote the song, he was almost certainly not writing about Christ, but that’s the beauty of art, the interpretation is up to the beholder. Christ is just cruising down the road and when He sees us, He just greets us and tells us to rest.

Next time you fell weighed down, look for Jesus, take a load off, and…

–Rise Up!!