The Barrel of Burdens

What if there was a barrel—say, a 50 gallon drum—into which we could each could put our toughest, most painful trial? The barrel could hold that one thing we want so desperately to escape... but only temporarily. Because, before leaving that barrel, we have to take out a trial. We get to pick one. We can study all of those terrible burdens and choose. But we have to leave with a burden.

I heard my dad talk about this barrel many times growing up. Usually, it was in the context of some trial he or our family was enduring. And this is how he concluded his little parable:

I think if we each had to stand around that barrel and look at the pain everyone else put in, we would probably just pick up our own again and walk away.

There is in this lesson a measure of perspective and gratitude. When we look around and see the tremendous suffering others have to endure it often reminds us that, although we have no love for our own pain, we know it could be much worse. If faced with the death of a child, or the decimation of my neighborhood by the bombs of a despot, or the utter loneliness of having concrete and cardboard for a bed, could I possibly choose those trials from that barrel?

It is hard to be grateful for our own pain, but with a little perspective we might start to perceive that we can bear what we are called upon to bear, endure what we must, and be grateful that through grace and providence we can not only survive, but thrive. And maybe, as we spend a little time at the barrel of burdens, we might even develop a stronger compassion for one another... and become "willing to bear one another’s burdens, that they may be light." -Mosiah 18:8