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!