By Michael Kelley

“Cast your cares on the Lord because he cares for you” (1 Peter 5:7).

Sounds like a great idea, doesn’t it? Because to “cast” means to throw off. Throw away. Get rid of. Discard. And who doesn’t want that? Who doesn’t want, in a world of so many cares, to not carry them any more? Who doesn’t want to be free of the burden of anxiety? 

Of course, as soon as we start entertaining that idea, we think of how impractical it is. We have responsibilities. Real troubles. Burdens of all stripes. This is one of those places in the Bible that we read longingly, then sigh and shake our heads, because as great as it sounds, it just isn’t real and practical. Maybe it was in the days of Peter who wrote this verse, but times are different now. Harder. More complicated.

And our burdens are similarly harder and more complicated and can’t just be thrown off.

But consider a little illustration here.

Once upon a time, I tried to do my own taxes. I considered myself reasonably intelligent, and thought that it couldn’t possibly be that complicated, and so I embarked on a weeks’ long journey of receipt and form gathering, website research, and trying to sort through various online documents. For those weeks I bore the burden of W2s, 1099s, and charitable deductions. And when I finally turned in all those forms, I still bore the burden of doing so because I wasn’t convinced I had done it correctly. I bore that burden for an entire year, wondering each day if the letter would come from the federal government accusing me of fraud. And that’s when I decided to never do it again. 

I hired someone. A professional. Someone who spoke the language of all those forms. And the next year, all I had to do was hand stuff over – and it was glorious. 
Now in that scenario, the burden was certainly complicated, but my ability to release the burden was less about the complications of the burden itself, and much more about the wisdom and expertise of the one whom I was handing it to.

If I trusted in that person’s ability to bear it, then there was no reason at all for me to try and do the same.

And who is the burden-bearer in 1 Peter 5:7?

It is the Lord. The Lord, gracious and loving. The Lord, strong and wise. The Lord, the Creator and sustainer of all things. The Lord, like whom there is no other. This is the invitation we are given. It’s not just to fling off our burdens into nothingness or onto someone barely more capable than we are – it is to cast them on the Lord.

In those terms, then, casting is not just a command; it’s an act of logic! Why would we try and bear the weighty, complicated, troubling burdens of life when there is someone so much more equipped to bear them?

Why would we insist on hanging onto that which is better handled by another? 

In that light, perhaps our refusal to cast our burdens on the Lord is more about our own pride and desire for control than it is about either the weight and complication of the burdens themselves or the ability of the Lord to handle them.

Right now, Christian, what burden are you bearing that feels too heavy? Too complicated? Too much in every way? There is another better equipped to bear it. If we will trust Him enough to do so.

Michael Kelley is a husband, father of three, author, and speaker from Nashville, TN. His latest book is a year-long family devotional guide called The Whole Story for the Whole Family. Find his personal blog at michaelkelley.co.