As I was hiking in the wilderness recently, I crossed
several debris fields from recent slides this spring. Broken, uprooted trees
dotted the mountainside turning the once beautiful view into a marred
landscape.
Avalanches. Leaving a path of complete devastation, the massive
snow force rumbles down the slope crushing trees like match sticks in one giant
force of nature. While slope angle, snowpack, and weather serve as predictors,
avalanches can occur with little to no warning sometimes in areas where a slide
has not occurred in over one hundred years.
Unpredictable. Destructive. Overwhelming. Avalanches are
never pleasant to experience. The aftermath of the debris left behind lingers
for many years as a testament to their power.
Observing the devastation from the recent slides in the
wilderness caused me to think of avalanches of another type. Life avalanches.
Life hits us hard sometimes. We become floored when life throws
us curve balls: the unexpected loss of a loved one, bad news from a doctor,
accidents, spousal betrayal, among others. What do you do when an avalanche
rips through your life creating a path of destruction in its wake?
If you are like most people, anxiety quickly sets in.
I don’t know how I can
get through this.
I don’t know what I
can do.
I don’t know how I
will survive this.
If you are a believer, most likely at one point you will
turn to 1 Peter 5:7:
“Cast all your
anxieties (cares, worries) on God, for He cares for you.”
The problem is sometimes we cast those worries on God, and
the destruction in our lives remains. We still struggle with grief over the
loss of a loved one. The cancer hasn’t gone away. The accident not only hurt
your body but also your ability to perform your job. The spouse who cheated on
you is now happily remarried while you struggle through life hurt and alone wondering
who you can really trust.
You stare at the
debris field in your life and think: Ok,
God, I have casted my cares on You, but my life hasn’t gotten any better. I’m still
alone and afraid. I still don’t know what to do or how I am going to make it through
this.
The problem is that we do a lot of talking. We throw those
worries on God, yet we keep ourselves in the center of them. Take a look at the
word “anxiety.” It is a seven-letter word. The letter “I” is right in the
center of it.
At the center of anxIety
is “I”! We never truly let go of those worries. We never truly let go of
those fears. We never truly let go of that hurt. We cast it on Jesus, but we
don’t let go as we cast! We never let go of the net.
Peter was a fisherman, so he was using an analogy that he
was comfortable with when he wrote 1 Peter 5:7. There is an art to casting a net
that Peter was well aware of. First, one initiates the throw by twisting at the
waist. Then, you release the net as you feel it build momentum and allow the
weight of the net to carry it out of your hands and sail away. The net will fan
out and sink to the bottom of the water trapping anything in its vicinity.
When Peter said to cast
all of our cares, worries, and anxieties on God, he didn’t mean for us to
just tell them to Jesus. He didn’t mean for us to say Ok, I’m struggling with this, this, and this. He meant for us to literally
cast them – to let go of them, to let
them fan out, to let them sink on God who can bear the weight of them instead
of us.
Peter knew that if the net was cast on us that we would be
trapped. He knew when the avalanches came in our lives that we would sink in
the debris. So, he told us to cast them away. To cast them on the only One who
can bear the weight of them. To cast them on the only One who can break free of
the net.
Cast all your cares on
Jesus. Throw them, fling them, release them and let go!
Then, it’s no longer. I
don’t know how I can get through this. Instead, it becomes: I can do all things through Christ who
strengthens me. It is no longer “I” in the middle of it.
To truly understand 1 Peter 5:7, one must first look at the
context. Take a look at 1 Peter 5:6.
“So humble yourselves
under the mighty power of God, and at the right time He will lift you up in
honor.”
In fact, don’t look at 1 Peter 5:6 and 5:7 as two separate
sentences. Look at them as one as portrayed in the ESV version.
“Humble yourselves,
therefore, under the mighty hand of God so that at the proper time He may exalt
you, casting all your anxieties on Him because He cares for you.”
We cast our anxieties on God as a result of humbling
ourselves. We take the focus off of ourselves and why this is happening to us
or how we are going to get through it. Instead, we humble ourselves to God.
There is another word in which the letter “I” is at the center.
pride
Pride is the opposite of humility. Pride says: I can do this. I can fix this. It is all
about me. Humbling ourselves to God says: God, You can do this. You can fix this. It is all about You.
We humble ourselves by casting our cares onto God. God’s promise
in these verses is that at the right time, He will exalt us, He will lift us
up!
Avalanches change the landscape in the mountains. The
scarring and disfigurement ultimately creates new habitats for plants and
wildlife. New growth occurs in the wake of devastation.
1 Peter 5:6 is a promise. At the right time, healing will
come! At the right time, we will be lifted up! At the right time, the landscape of the debris
from the avalanche that has happened in your life will change. At the right
time, you will look back on this chapter in your life and say:
I can see how God
walked with me. I can see how God strengthened me. I can see how God made my
faith grow. I can see how God blessed me even in the midst of trials. I can see
how God got me through that. I can see how I truly can do all things through
Christ who gives me strength!
The next time an avalanche roars and crashes through your
life cast that debris field on God. And, let go of the net!
