Encourage Them to Share Their Burden

Share each other’s burdens, and in this way obey the law of Christ.

Galatians 6:2 (NLT)

The very purpose of a cancer support group is to offer support for the common burden every participant is carrying. Yet encouraging the participants in your group to share their burden can be a difficult thing.

By its very nature, cancer brings uncertainty, confusion, and isolation, making it a challenge to share and bear our burdens. There are many reasons why:

·         It’s difficult to talk about these things; so many people feel that they need to bear their burden alone.

·         Others are afraid to ask for help or don’t want to be a burden to others.

·         There are those who have had bad experiences with depending on others and have basic trust issues. Their God-given ability to reach out in poverty of spirit and neediness has been bruised or injured, and they have withdrawn their needs from others.

·         And yet there can be others who are so willing to give but yet not able to receive from others even in their hour of greatest need.

Through my own experience and the suffering I have witnessed in the lives of others, I have learned that we need one another. God never intended for us to go it alone. At the very beginning of the human race, God said, “It is not good for man to be alone …” so He made Eve. Thousands of years have passed but our need for one another has not changed. We still need others to help us bear life’s burdens.

Two people are better off than one, for they can help each other succeed.

If one person falls, the other can reach out and help.

But someone who falls alone is in real trouble.

Ecclesiastes 4:9-10 (NLT)

In your group, bring to light that all of us need one another and how necessary it is to recognize their need in order to endure the journey they’re on. Also acknowledge and discuss the many reasons people may be reluctant to share their burden. Open and honest discussion will let them know they’re not alone in the way they feel.

Laying this groundwork in your group will give your participants permission to need others. It will let them know that this is a safe place to share their burdens and hopefully they will open their hearts.

“A burden shared is a burden diminished.”

Jan Dravecky