“Cast all your anxiety on him because he cares for you” (1 Peter 5:7, NIV).

I listened to him not as to one who has authority through position or education but to one who has authority through brokenness made whole. His illness has recurred, and he faces a difficult future. “I don’t worry about this” he said. “I do with it just like I did with my drug addiction. I hand it to Jesus.”

It seems so simplistic and artificial, handing off our troubles to a God we cannot see to lessen our worries. Seems like a psychological tool to relieve stress by pretending someone else has taken it from us—unless Jesus is truly present with both the desire and ability to lift the weight from our shoulders.

If Peter is correct in the verse above, does that make God a great Psychologist in the sky, who soothes us with words of comfort? Such would be helpful even if that were all God is, but that’s not all God is. This patient knew from experience that God had taken the impossible burden of drug addiction and lifted it from his broken body. God did not just soothe him and leave him trapped by his circumstances. God brought His power into the circumstance and changed things.

And He is the same God for us as He is for my patient.

Sometimes He comes in power and changes our circumstances, but not always.

He always walks with us in every circumstance.

He always offers us the joy of His presence.

He always brings us His peace and power.

He always provides us light to show the way.

He always accomplishes His purpose in our lives no matter how weak we may become, if we seek His will.

He always prepares a place for us when this life is done.

Always, we can “hand it to Jesus.”

Dear Father,

It seems so impossibly simple, but I know it is a simplicity on the other side of an impossibly complex and painful cross. Thank you for being here with me and for me.

Amen