“We can only learn to know ourselves and do what we can, namely, surrender our will and fulfill God’s will in us.” - St. Teresa of Avila

Lately, at the end of a busy day, on my long drive home from work, I’ve been turning off the car radio for a welcome time of silence. But, inevitably, interrupting the silence are the soulful tune and lyrics from an Otis Reading song that keep running through my head: “Oh, she may get weary, young girls they do get weary…”

And every time I find myself getting choked up and weepy.

“What is your problem?” I would ask myself – as if I had no clue.

Finally, my state of denial was shattered when I stopped by one of our parishes for a few moments of prayer and noticed a large wicker basket hanging on the wall, brimming with white slips of paper. A plaque on the wall identified it as the “Parish Burden Basket.”

In that moment, looking at a poignant reminder of the human condition, I began to cry. Otis’ words were making complete sense.

While I may not be so young anymore, I am surely feeling weary and weighed down with burdens.

It stems mostly from the fact that life offers no guarantees – about health, about finances, about family life. The reality may be that we have done everything in our power to raise our children with love and faith, and things go wrong; we may have made a concerted effort to keep ourselves and our loved ones healthy, only to have someone diagnosed with a serious illness; we may work hard to be financially secure only to be hit with any number of storms that threaten our future.

Eventually, the burdens begin to weigh us down, draining our energy and our joy, especially when our best efforts to meet the challenges fall short.

And therein lies the real problem – our need to do it ourselves, to be in control.

Our faith calls us to, “Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding” (Prov. 3:5-6). How well we are able to do this not only affects our spiritual and emotional health, it frames the power of our witness as disciples of Christ. Certainly a disciple devoid of hope and joy, one who fails to trust in the Lord’s goodness and mercy, will have a hard time leading others to Christ.

For me, God’s exclamation point came in the mail yesterday when a long-time reader sent a card with the lyrics to a lovely, old hymn: “The weary pilgrim on life’s pathway – struggling on beneath thy load, hear these words of consolation, ‘Cast thy burden on the Lord.’… Are thy tired feet unsteady, does thy lamp no light afford, is thy cross too great and heavy? ‘Cast thy burden on the Lord.’…  And He will strengthen thee, sustain and comfort thee – Cast thy burden on the Lord.’”

That hymn inspired in me a new Lenten resolution – giving up control; a challenging sacrifice I pray will prepare my heart for the “giving over” that is a true surrender to God’s love and will for me.

And with God’s musical whispers in my ear, I believe the only way for this to happen is to recognize that I can’t make it happen on my own.

Only with God’s grace will this be a penitential act that stretches my ability to surrender everything to God, and one that will continue to grow my relationship with God throughout this Year of Faith.

Mary Morrell is managing editor of The Monitor.