Playing Atlas

Rabbi Harold Kushner once wrote about the character Atlas in Greek mythology. You may remember that Atlas was condemned to carry the weight of the entire world on his shoulders — a punishment so severe it was the harshest the ancient Greek mind could conjure.

Kushner's observation was simple and devastating: "Today, it seems, we have volunteered to play the role of Atlas. We have not offended God — we've dismissed him. We've offered to carry the weight of the entire world on our shoulders.”

We laugh. And then we recognize ourselves.

There is something in adult life that accumulates weight. The responsibilities, the worries, the awareness of everything that could go wrong. We carry our work, our families, our finances, the state of the world — and we carry it all with a kind of grim determination, as if the whole thing might fall apart if we stop holding it up.

Jesus once watched his disciples try to shoo children away from him — too busy, too serious, too much important business at hand. And he stopped them. "Let the children come to me," he said. "It is to such as these that the kingdom of God belongs." (Mark 10:14)

And then he said something that stops me every time: "Whoever does not receive the kingdom of God as a little child will never enter it.”

Children don't carry the weight of the world. They take each moment as it comes, trusting that they will be taken care of. Not because they are naive — but because they haven't yet talked themselves out of that trust.

What if we could recover even a little of that? Not irresponsibility — but a genuine, practiced trust that God is at work in the things we cannot control. That we are not, in fact, Atlas. That the world is held by hands far steadier than ours.

I honestly struggle with this as much as anyone. The Atlas habit runs deep — and I suspect I am not alone in that.

But perhaps that is where we begin — not with perfect trust, but with the willingness to loosen our grip, just a little. To admit that we were never meant to hold all of this. And to let God be God.

I wonder what might we be able to set down - even if it is just for today?

Prayer: Loving God, we confess that we have tried to carry what was never ours to carry. We have worried and strained and gripped tightly — as if everything depended on us alone. Remind us today that we are not Atlas. You are holding this. Give us the grace to trust you with what we cannot control, and the freedom that comes from releasing it. We ask in Jesus' name. Amen.

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