throw your responsibilities.

the last chapter in battlefield of the mind was about worry -- super good chapter. on a sidenote, i've been reminding myself i need to take the things joyce meyer has to say w/a grain of salt. her most charismatic moments do a good job of reminding me.

the last part of that chapter talked about the popular verse in 1 peter that deals with worry; "cast all your anxiety on him, because he cares for you." i've got a photo in my room of that verse underlined in my bible. 1 peter is one of my favorite books of the Bible, and 5:7 is a solid verse. at vespers, we always close with a quiet song that gives everyone a chance to refocus for the upcoming week. last sunday's song was turn your eyes upon jesus. good stuff. often we do the song 'cares chorus'

I cast all my cares upon you.
I lay all of my burdens down at your feet.
And, anytime that I don't know what to do,
I will cast all my cares upon you.

I used the handy website blueletterbible.org (thanks wendy) to check out the Greek words in the verse from 1 peter. the meaning of care is similar to the word anxiety. the meaning of cast is similar to throw or place.


Don't just cast -- THROW. Hm. Interesting word usage. Joyce had the same idea. I think of walking thru the front door at the end of the day. The first thing I do is throw my bag on the floor, counter, chair, etc. Someplace except my weary shoulder. (Ok, actually the first thing I do is take off my shoes (especially in the winter) because I hate walking around on the wood/carpet with dirty/wet shoes, and then later when you just have socks on, your socks then get dirty/wet).

I like the idea of throwing my cares on God. It sounds sort of wreckless, which probably isn't a good thing. But moreso, it just sounds like the perfect way to releave the things I've been caring.

To make the point, another word choice of Joyce (hehe that rhymes) was to use reponsibilities to describe cares. In my mind, cares and anxieties are pretty much the same thing. But responsibilities ... that's great. There are a lot of things I worry about in my life that I wouldn't think of as cares/anxieties. Thinking of this verse in terms of responsibilities helps me realize that even those things I HAVE to do, my obligations, the things I really don't want to do along with the things I do, can also be cast on God. I'm happy that I can also cast on God the things I really don't want to do, the things I don't care about. Maybe it's not fair or right to say but it's how I feel.