#weighed down

Are you worried?

Well, you should be. If you’re not worried, then you’re not paying attention. Because there’s no end of things to be worried about.

There are so many things that are unravelling right now. So much that needs to be done. So many grave problems.

Problems with people and relationships. Problems with addictions. Problems with jobs and money. More than we could ever hope to handle. Some of it beyond our ability to do anything about.

And on top of all of that, there world is full of large-scale problems that none of us can truly escape from.

There’s more than enough to be worried about. If we’re trusting ourselves to handle it.

We’ve got legitimate reasons to worry. Those reasons to worry? They’re kind of unavoidable.

But worrying? Actually being anxious about what could happen? Playing the “what-if” game with ourselves?

Truth be told, we’re not built to do it. And there’s no need for us to do that.

Jesus is looking directly at us in today’s Gospel when He says, “you are anxious and worried about many things. There is need of only one thing.”

What is Jesus talking about? If worry isn’t needed, then what is the one thing that is needed?

Turning to God with our worries. Turning to God with everything that’s making us anxious.

Trusting God with everything that’s weighing down on us.

Saying to God, “I can’t handle all this on my own. I need your help.” Then actually sharing everything that’s weighing you down with God.

And finding, before you’re half done, that your load is already lighter.

Because God has been waiting from before you were born to help you. To support you. To encourage you. To help you carry everything that’s weighing you down.

All there for the asking.

All you and I have to do? Get over ourselves enough to ask.

Cares are things. Heavy things.

And there’s a question about cares baked into today’s Psalm.

What are you carrying around?

If you’re like me, the honest answer is something like “more than I want to.”

All of us have cares. Whether it’s cares from our past (and every one of us has them). Or the cares of the present. Or cares of the future.

Those are just our basic cares. The ones that are always with us. They create a basic level of weight that we carry around.

And even if we don’t notice them because they’re in the background, it still takes energy to carry them around.

Which means it should be no surprise that the hard stuff of life – relationship problems, family, health, finances, addictions – and even the cares of daily life can feel like they weigh so much more. Can hit us so much harder.

Because you and I are already weighed down with all of our background cares.

Before any of those other cares get thrown on top of what we’re already carrying.

With all of those cares weighing down on us, it’s tempting to just dump it all. Drop all your cares and run away from them.

I know someone who tries to do just that.

Every few months, when it all gets to be too much for them at work, they bail out.

They quit their job. Reinvent themselves with a new employer or in a new line of work. Then find a new job.

Sometimes it lasts a few months, sometimes they make it almost a year.

But when it all gets to be too much for them, they quit their job. Reinvent themselves with a new employer or in a new line of work. Then find a new job.

Rinse and repeat.

Each time it happens, we talk about it. And each time I hear the same things. When the dust settles, they swapped all of the things they couldn’t stand about their old job for the new job’s version of the same stuff.

Nothing ever seems to change for them.

Because dropping your cares and running away from them is an illusion.

It’s not just a job thing. The same thing holds true for every source of cares in our lives. Whether it’s relationships, family, friends, health, addiction, finances, or any other source of cares in our lives.

Your cares follow you. Because no matter where you go. Or what you change. You can’t get away from you.

And when you try to carry your cares alone, your cares will make you into your own worst problem.

Here’s what does work. Not carrying them alone. Not even trying to carry them alone.

And it starts with the most important relationship in your life. Your relationship with God.

How does that figure into our cares?

One of the most subtle forms of pride is the unwillingness to get help. Even our unwillingness to admit that we need help. No matter how badly, how obviously we need it. 

One of the hardest parts of our relationship of God is letting go of our pride. Even our perverse, self-injuring pride in handling our cares alone.

This is what’s behind the Psalmist’s advice to “Cast your cares upon the Lord, and He will support you.”

The help you and I need each day to bear the weight of our cares is ready and waiting. All for the asking.

Whatever you are carrying, know that you were never meant to carry it alone.

God is waiting to support you, to do it with you. If you’ll let Him.

He can’t get all into bed With over half of it weighed down, he said… That stuff goes And frees up bed clothes, So he can be well cover-ed – Jonathan Caswell

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