Devotional
Posted: 05/29/2026
By the famous Hollywood Sign, there is a 3.5-mile paved trail known as the Lake Hollywood Loop. It is a scenic trail around a water reservoir that attracts many runners and people committed to a healthy lifestyle. One thing I recently noticed is that some people wear weighted vests while they run. For a beginner like me, still building resilience and stamina, it is fascinating to see more seasoned runners carrying extra weight as they make their way around the loop under the Los Angeles sun.
“It must be heavy,” I said to one of my runner friends.
“It is heavy,” he replied, “but boy, once you remove the vest, you can’t imagine how light you feel. You feel like a feather carried by the wind.”
We all carry weight on our shoulders, visible or invisible. Often, we carry it silently: pain, sorrow, suffering, shame, guilt, and stigma. Others may or may not notice the burdens we bear, but we know their weight and feel the toll they take on us. We hide our tears and sweat and keep pushing, believing it is simply our cross to carry.
What we often fail to realize is that some of the baggage we carry is not even ours, burdens we never chose and wounds we never consented to bear.
The moment we acknowledge this, we feel relieved. We become lighter and freer. We begin to relinquish what was never meant for us to carry.
May God grant us the grace and self-awareness to discern what truly belongs to us and what does not, and the courage to surrender the rest to Him, who bore our sins and our burdens on the cross. For He did not create us to live crushed by unnecessary weight, but to live freely, lifted by His grace.
