Cast Your Cares

Psalm 55:22
Cast your cares on the LORD
and he will sustain you;

The spring winds are still having their way around here and sure enough the signs of a new season are popping up all over. I am also aware of the signs of a new season moving within me. I expected it, much as I expect the change of any season, because I've seen and experienced it many times before.

However, this pattern of see and believe doesn't always work for me. I know from experience that I am not in control. God has shown me time and time again that He is in control and it always comes as such a relief. Repeatedly he has carried the load, mended the heart, and given grace for the day at hand. I know from experience that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose. (Romans 8:28)

Still, I occasionally find myself believing I've got everything under control. I get tired from carrying the load. The poisonous gases of anxiety and worry seep in. Faith is a journey that takes a lifetime. Meanwhile, I have found a good visual that helps me out. Literally putting my hands on a concept of faith helps me to build faith.

I discovered this exercise when I was a youth group leader. All you need is a helium balloon, a felt tip marker, something fairly heavy like a rock or a brick, a wide open space and faith that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus. (Philippians 1:6)

On the balloon, write down whatever is weighing you down. Maybe it’s a need to forgive someone or to be forgiven. Maybe it’s a load of responsibility that you just can’t carry by yourself anymore. It might be a loved one in trouble whom you feel powerless to help, a boss on your last nerve, or a dream that seems infinitely out of reach. Whatever it is that you long to give to the Lord, write it on the balloon.

Secure the string of the balloon and the brick in your hand and hold it straight out. While you’re doing this begin praying. Praise God for his ability and willingness to take the weight off your shoulders. Pray about the issue at hand. Ask for the strength to not retrieve it from him once you’ve given it to him. Pray what is on your heart. Before long, your arm will start to ache from the weight. But as in real life, you will be able to hold out a little longer. Eventually, your arm will give out and the rock will fall to the ground.

The balloon carrying your weighty words, however, is on its way into the sky and out of sight. Take a moment to weave the meaning of the symbolism into the fabric of your soul. I hope you feel lighter. I do.

This doesn’t mean that I’ll stop taking action or being concerned about this or that thing. Hopefully it means that my actions will be more fruitful unlike the exhausting re-actions that wear me out emotionally and physically. My concerns will motivate me to be closer to God rather than worries that lead me away.

...like this child

Matthew 18: 3-5

3And he said: "I tell you the truth, unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. 4Therefore, whoever humbles himself like this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven.
5"And whoever welcomes a little child like this in my name welcomes me."

Throughout life there are always any number of problems to solve and profound thoughts to be pondered. In the midst of it all I strive and struggle not to forget simplicity.It's easy to lose the ability to see life through the eyes of a child if we don't continue to hone those skills. I think this inability is as disabling in life as any other ability I have lost with age (or have never gotten around to trying at all).

I recently came across some poems which my mom has been saving. I loved them as a child. "My Shadow" which I'm including below was one of my favorites. I didn't know of Robert Louis Stevenson or his impressive list of literary accomplishments. I only knew that I enjoyed the words. I loved sitting next to my mother as she read and reread the children's books and poems to me. As I read over the poems I was transported to a simpler time and that familiar feeling stirred in me.

Whatever our work or our ministry we hope that it will make a difference. As a writer I hope that my words will touch lives. As a Christian I hope that I will do all things to His Glory. When I wrote my first "books" as a youngster, I simply wanted to tell a story. Story told...mission accomplished. It occurred to me that when my work on earth is weighed on the Kingdom scales it will not be the quantity that tips them one way or the other. It won't matter how many copies I've sold or how many articles I'll have had published. Nor am I convinced that it will be the relative quality. The real weight will be in the love, faith, and obedience involved in the work. With those things factored into my writing, the words will have no choice but to be effective in what ever way God determines.

My Shadow
by Robert Louis Stevenson

I have a little shadow that goes in and out with me,
And what can be the use of him is more than I can see.
He is very, very like me from the heels up to the head;
And I see him jump before me, when I jump into my bed.

The funniest thing about him is the way he likes to grow-
Not at all like proper children, which is always very slow;
For he sometimes shoots up taller like an india-rubber ball,
And he sometimes gets so little that there's none of him at all.

He hasn't got a notion of how children ought to play,
And can only make of fool of me in every sort of way.
He stays so close beside me, he's a coward, you can see;
I'd think shame to stick to nursie as that shadow sticks to me!

One morning, very early, before the sun was up,
I rose and found the shining dew on every buttercup;
But my lazy little shadow, like an arrant sleep head,
Had stayed at home behind me and was fast asleep in bed.

Fences

Fences are built on cloudy days
By the strong hands of many men
Fences are built with fallen trees
To keep things out and keep them in.

Fences are built in the blazing sun
Keeping within the property line
Fences are built lest we forget
What is yours and what is mine.

The strongest fences I've ever seen
Are the ones I saw in someone's heart
Maintained with precision and labored days
To keep this man and his Lord apart.

Waiting there where the grass is greener
I saw the Lord with grace throughout
And I knew the fence that wouldn't let Him in
Would someday soon never let Him out.

~Lisa Bose

The Winds of Change

Winds in the East...mist coming in...like something is brewin'...about to begin. I can't put me finger on what lies in store. I feel what's to happen all happened before. - (Burt just before Mary Poppins blows into town.)

The winds of change are dominating the weather. The morning breezes stretch as the birds sing and flutter from one perch to another. They are building their exposed nests on barren branches. They know the shelter of leaves is not far behind.

No two days are the same. The changes of spring are in the air showing themselves new and fresh every morning. Every moment of every day is filled with change.

I, too, anticipate the new life on the trees, the green grass, budding flowers, and warmer days. I've seen it happen every year. It is on faith, however, that I believe what I cannot see. The change is happening now. Life is steeping in the places that still look dead. It is all happening, unobservable to my eyes, under the watchful eye of the Creator, who never grows weary or tired.

By design people are proficient in sensory adaptation. For example: the aroma of the roast in the crock pot becomes all but undetectable to the cook who stays with it. But go outside for a short time and return. You'll get a great dose of what you've been missing. You are probably largely unaware of the watch on your wrist or the floor under your feet, until you focus on it.
These examples of sensory adaptation demonstrate that we generally need change to take notice. We tend to take in the world around us in ways that are most useful for survival and effective functioning.

It is change that captures our attention. Change makes us take notice and change is inevitable. And so it is with the seasons of my soul. Thankfully, I can rely on God for rest when I am weary. Also I can count on Him to stir me, lest I should become too complacent. Life is a journey of the soul towards Him. On the way we are promised enough grace for the day, strength for the task at hand, tests, trials, temptations, and rest. Change is inevitable. God knows how to get my attention for His purposes.

Sometimes it blows over me like a breath of fresh air and revives me. Other times change is forced upon me like a 60 mile per hour gust that takes my breath away and puts me too my knees in prayer.

I strive to remember that the God of peace, who through the blood of the eternal covenant brought back from the dead our Lord Jesus, that great Shepherd of the sheep will equip me with everything good for doing his will. (Hebrews 13:20-21)

Psalm 135:6-7
6 The LORD does whatever pleases him,
in the heavens and on the earth,
in the seas and all their depths.

7 He makes clouds rise from the ends of the earth;
he sends lightning with the rain
and brings out the wind from his storehouses.

I embrace change by keeping my eyes on the One who can measure the waters of this world in the hollow of his hand.