Countdown to Hope ~
Day 5
Fishing for Hope
“Cast your cares on
the Lord and he will sustain you; he will never let the righteous fall.” Psalms
55:22
Casting your cares is a wonderful
concept, when you can grasp that concept. Unfortunately, I struggled with how
to apply this wisdom to my life and my walk. As a new Christian, I spent countless
hours reading books, listening to tapes and surrounding myself with people who
were strong in the faith because I, too, wanted to be strong and grounded in my
faith walk. I spent time in church services, attended bible study classes,
prayed and put forth my best effort to be the best Christian I could be. I read
the scriptures and memorized as much as I could. I felt good about my growth
and the direction in which I was headed. But despite all of this success, I
still struggled to grasp the deeper meaning of “cast your cares”.
Because I am a “need to know how”
kind of individual, I question things. I am the search engine queen! My
smartphone gets smarter each day simply because of the endless stream of
information that I search for each day. So, when I needed clarification
regarding this scripture, too many explanations came up flat! I am a visual learner. I need pictures,
graphics or a really thorough description of something in order to comprehend
the concept. I needed to be able to
visualize this idea of “casting my cares”. Well, after over twenty years trying
to live a committed Christian life (with shortcomings I might add), I finally
got it the other day while playing a video game! LOL!
Let me put out that I am not the
outdoorsy type. I like nature, in its place, which means outside of my house. I’ve
never hunted, nor trapped my food. I like my food good and dead before I ever
come in contact with it. Hence, this explains my inability to make the
correlation between casting and fishing. Last year, I bought a game about
fishing for our game console because it seemed interesting to me (just not enough
to actually go and do it). I grew up in a city and fishing was something done in
the country. But, again, this game intrigued me. The tutorial took you through
all of the necessary motions to successfully catch fish. It taught you how to cast the line in
different ways, how to hook the fish, and how to reel it in. The other morning,
I was up early and decided to spend a few moments fishing in my living room. As
I quietly cast the line over and over again, I heard the voice of the Holy
Spirit point out the obvious image that I’d been searching to find for so long!
He said, “Think of casting your cares the way that you cast the line. The way
that you cast the line will determine how far away your cares will travel. And
as the line, with the bait, sinks into the water so shall your cares sink into
the sea. And as you thumb the line, you’ll hook hope just like a fisherman
hooks a fish. From there, all you have to do is reel it in.” Well, wow! What an
amazing image! God knew what I needed and I got it just in the nick of time!
Now,
when I am burdened down, I know that I just need to go fishing! I’m prepared
with my rod, my hook and the bait of praise. I’ll make sure that I cast my cares
as I throw out the line, then hook my catch, and reel in some much needed hope!
So, I’ll see you later because I’m going fishing!