April 19, 2024 - Casting

      As I write this I sit in the Cancer Center hooked to an IV.  I am more than grateful that I have only one treatment a month now.
      I met with the oncologist this morning.  It had been a few months since I had met with him and the first time since getting the good news of a second negative report on the multiple myeloma. 
      He had the biggest smile on his face that I have seen from him.  He confirmed everything that we had been told previously.  He was more definitive about just how rare my results are.  It is something that he doesn’t see often (maybe never), especially in a “non stem cell transplant” patient.
      I may not only be the heathiest looking patient today in the cancer center, but I am also likely the healthiest.
      I am a very blessed and grateful man.
 
      For a couple of reasons this has been a very difficult week.  I should have known it was coming after preaching Sunday on the theme “Restoring Your Joy.”  Often the enemy attacks me on the theme of sermons.
      This week Teresa told me about a friend of hers whose son took an eight-year-old fishing.  The young lad spent about as much time casting his lure in the trees as in the water.  The guy said that he thought maybe that he was too old to take an eight-year-old fishing.
      My solution: stay away from the trees!
      We live on a lake but casting is something that I haven’t been able to do this spring.  It might be considered a sin to live where we live and not spend more time on the lake.
      I have never been proficient using a casting rod and reel.  I grew up as a spinning rod fisherman. 
Years ago Dad and I fished a pro-am bass tournament.  The evening before the tournament the sponsors of the tournament had some contests.  I won a really nice casting rod and reel by flipping a lure the most times out of three with a casting rod into a small box.  I flipped the lure in the middle of the box the first time.  The reel backlashed as it usually does when I use a casting reel, but that meant that it stopped at the correct distance.  The next two casts were set and I won the rod and reel.  The other guys who really wanted the rod and reel weren’t too happy.
      
Peter writes in 1 Peter 5:7 “Cast all your anxiety on him because he cares for you.”
Casting is something that Peter would have understood.  Before becoming one of the 12 disciples he spent most of his life casting as a professional fisherman. 
Peter didn’t cast a rod and reel. 1000s of times he would have cast a net.  On two of those occasions, Jesus performed a miracle for an extremely large catch.  One was at the calling of four disciples.   The last was after the Resurrection when Jesus restored Peter to ministry.
      The word that Peter uses for cast is used only one other time in Scripture.  When Jesus rode the donkey into Jerusalem, Luke tells us that the people cast their coats on the ground.
      This word translated cast implies two things: 1.) an earnestness and 2.) that you can’t retrieve it once it is cast.  Kind of like casting a stone into a lake.
      I must admit, this week I have had a lot of trouble casting my cares upon Jesus.  There has been an earnestness but I have functioned spiritually like I do when I cast a lure: I keep reeling it back in.
      There are lots of cares that I have cast upon Jesus and left with Him.  Most of those are things that I can’t do anything about. 
      I have one care that I continue to carry.  I have tried to cast it on Jesus but I haven’t learned just how to be able to do that.  It is one of those things that I must do my part in the culture in which we live, while at the same time I must realize that His will and His timing I cannot control.
      That care is our worship leader position at our church.  I may have been able to overcome three cancers in the past year but now I may die of a heart attack stressing over music at church.
      I have prayed as much about this as anything in the last few months and I have lost more sleep at the same time.  It has felt like a spiritual backlash that I have had about as much trouble unraveling in my heart as a tangled fishing reel.
      If I could figure out the method to do everything that I can and then leave it in Jesus’ hands, I could write a book. 
      Lord, help me live out my calling to do what is required of me to help Your will come to fruition.  Even more, teach me how to cast all my cares on You.  I am not sure I know how to experientially do that.   Lord, if You could teach me the method, I will gladly share that with others.
        And Lord, we are seeking your will when it comes to being able to worship You.