1 Peter 5:7 Casting all your anxieties on him, because he cares for you. ESV

I don’t know if you have ever tried throwing a cast net to catch fish or not but growing up in my home I got to accompany my dad on many fishing trips and he loved to throw his net. He was good at it and most times he caught a fair number of fish. I was always too little to carry it back in those days, it was about 8 feet long and heavy. He would put one part over one arm, grab the lead line to another side lean back and let go. He would throw that net many years, until his health no longer allowed him to and then he would take someone to throw it for him while he drove the boat. He was truly a fisherman at heart.

About a year after his death, I found the bucket that held that old net in his barn, just like he left it. I brought it home and put it in storage. It was many months later when I finally got it out. I worked with it for a few days and then I took it out to the water. I walked out into the bay, got part of that net over one arm grabbed the line like he would have dug my toes in the mud and threw as hard as I could. It was nowhere as good as if he had thrown it and I more than likely simply scared all the fish off, but man did it feel good to let that thing go! I pulled the long rope holding that net back to me through the mud and now it was even heavier & harder to get up to throw, but I found something in letting go...

Peace and then tears came because I wondered, is that why he loved it so much, he was willing to have someone else throw it for him when he couldn’t?  Don’t get me wrong, he loved to catch fish but at times there was more to it than that.

I pulled that net back through the water until my shoulder was hurting and I was exhausted, but each time I put that wet, heavy, net over my arm I thought less about catching fish and more about that little verse in 1 Peter 5:7 Casting all your anxieties on him because he cares for you. I thought about all the “things” I have carried over the years, things I was never meant to carry, but was always there. I’m sure I looked crazy trying to get that (far larger than me) net up to throw, but I didn’t care. To cast something means to throw forcefully, I thought of a lot of things out there in that water, but it was mostly a reminder of what Jesus can do in a life.

Because here is the thing, until we let go we can’t be free. The pain, the hurt, the bitterness, the wronged you endured. As long as you hang onto that heavy burden it just gets heavier by the day and we sink deeper in a life that we believe is making us “ strong” but secretly we’re drowning in pain.

 We have a Heavenly Father who can carry the weight of whatever holds us down, who will not ever get tired. The one who paid the ultimate price for our freedom and peace of mind and heart. The one who will never leave and beckons us to rest in him, if we’ll only stop trying to carry something that gets a little heavier each day. Jesus calls out to us, “Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.” Matt 11:28 Sometimes life is hard, harder than we think we can bear, but there is peace to be found in that little verse. Jesus, while on the cross was placed every sin, every weight, every pain we would ever go through so we could have freedom and rest from whatever holds us down. If you are a believer in Christ all the work has been done for you and you are forgiven, cast it all on Jesus and forgive yourself too, because there is hope ❤️