Casting Cares
Casting all your cares upon him; for he careth for you. (1 Peter 5:7)
A few weeks ago, I had a brief conversation with one of our members as she left after a service. We were discussing bulletin articles and she thanked me for writing the articles each week. This was very encouraging because I am often not too sure whether these articles are read or they are simply a slick lining for the bird cage. I thanked her for the comments and remarked that these articles are one of my most difficult tasks each week. Usually, the article is additional commentary on the weekly sermon and may have a few thoughts that I did not plan to address. This type of article is in some measure less difficult to write because my mind is already focused on the Sunday subject. I do not need to invent a topic. It is also personally helpful as I reach more clarity on the subject I will preach.
Other articles are often like this one. I wrote this when not preaching and while recovering from surgery. I did not have a sermon to lean on for bulletin material and a subject that needs more expansion. Neither do I want to merely fill space because there is room for it as a weekly feature of your handout.
After thinking for a good while and staring at blank paper, I decided to tell you about needing encouragement while waiting for surgery. This article was written two weeks before the event, and quite honestly, my mind was filled with the positives and negatives of it. Additionally, it was a day that Pam wasn’t feeling well, and I was waiting to hear news from the Emergency Department. Earlier, I left her there for treatment. Because of the COVID surge, they would not let me stay with her. This provided one more reason that made writing so difficult.
To be truthful, the blank thoughts problem had gone on for quite some time and was not confined to this one day. Since I was first told I needed surgery, I was resistant, and the wheels were turning but I was going nowhere. For several weeks, I was preaching in pain and trying to study while taking pain pills. If I said some strange things (stranger than usual), those statements were inspired from pill bottles.
The brief experience I want to share is the method of finding encouragement. I felt my mind was wasting too much time in the fog which prevented spiritual growth and close communion with the Lord. Every night I pray before bed but neither does prayer mix well with pain medications. I needed something different while at the same time both soothing and encouraging. I laid in bed wearing my headphones so as not to disturb Pam. I set a random selection of hymns to play not realizing that the playlist had at least five artists/arrangements of the hymn His Robes for Mine set to repeat. I listened to the song multiple times and yet still hanging on every word. I cannot explain how pain, exhaustion, discouragement, and anxiety disintegrated as I heard countless times, “I cling to Christ, and marvel at the cost: Jesus forsaken, God estranged from God. Bought by such love, my life is not my own. My praise—my all—shall be for Christ alone.”
There is a line in the song I am sure makes no sense to many: “Jesus is crushed, and thus the Father’s pleased.” And then in the end, “He, as though I, accursed and left alone; I as though He, embraced and welcomed home!” I went to sleep peacefully with this thought: “For consider him that endured such contradiction of sinners against himself, lest ye be wearied and faint in your mind.” (Hebrews 12:3).
Pastor V. Mark Smith