Category: church

Cast Your Cares

Cast Your Cares

Carolyn

“Cast your burden on the Lord, and he will sustain you…” (Psalm 55:22).

I’m in the middle of a 3-part series that I’ll return to soon, but I ended my last post saying we left the high places (from our trip to Switzerland) and hit the ground hard back in the valley! In so doing, we’ve been talking about “casting” a lot – “casting” our cares on the Lord (1 Peter 5:7) and remembering His perfect love “casts” out fear (1 John 4:18), thinking where in Scripture we find the command to “cast”!

While there in Switzerland, we saw this cute church in Lauterbrunnen and visited. They had a bowl of business-size cards for guests to take. I debated whether we should take one, perhaps making sure to leave enough for others. My daughter handed me one, and I slid it into my purse pocket and forgot about it.

I was shopping yesterday and looking for my credit card in my purse pocket and found this stuffed in there. It was a sweet reminder from our time at that beautiful church and of our need to cast our burdens, cares, and anxieties on the Lord who cares for us!

I looked at the church website and saw this quote from Jochen Klepper, who I see online was a prominent German Christian writer, journalist, and one of the 20th century’s most significant Lutheran hymn writers:

“You who hold time in Your hands, Lord, take up the burden of this year as well and turn it into blessing. Now that the center has been firmly established by You in Jesus Christ, lead us toward the goal. You alone are called the Eternal One, knowing beginning, end, and center amidst the fleeting passage of our times: remain graciously turned toward us and lead us by Your hand, that we may walk securely.”

Whatever you are carrying today, remember the Lord cares for you, and you have the perfect place to cast your cares!

While I was shopping yesterday, I also heard this song twice, back-to-back on one radio station and then another. What a great reminder that “What You said on the mountain is still true in the valley”!

Church

Church

Carolyn

We recently moved after spending 20 years in one community. As I reflected on our years there, I could see one common thread that had anchored us in those years: our church.

The first Sunday we arrived in the summer of 2002, we visited the church where other family members attended, and we never looked back. It became a place of worship, of fellowship, of service, and even employment. Our children’s school met there, and I worked at the school for five years before working at the church for 11 years. My daily routine for 16 of those 20 years was to be at the church. Our kids went through all the children’s ministries, junior high and high school, sports ministries, mission trips, and retreats up until college. My husband and I served on various boards and committees and in the children’s ministries, and I discovered that service is the best way to meet people. You go to serve, thinking you are giving, and in the end, you receive way more than you could ever give, while making friends along the way! I participated in Women’s Bible Study which God used to shape me and change my life through the in-depth study of His Word. Our church was in walking distance of our home, about 4 blocks away. It was the center of our lives and community.

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