Sunday Musings: Lend an Ear
A bit of properly-placed venting has a lot to recommend it:
Casting all your care up on him; for he careth for you. 1 Peter 5:7 (KJV)
Casting means to throw upon or place upon. Care is the Greek word merimna. It’s not a good word. (Well, I suppose the word is just fine, but the anxious, distracting care it describes sucks pretty much.)
Jesus used the word merimna in reference to the “cares of this world.” (Mark 4:19 is one such instance.) Merimna comes from merizo, which means to divide, to separate into parts or to cut into pieces. Wow. Who hasn’t felt like that a time or two? Deadlines grappling with each other for top spot, the things you want to do clambering up to the front now and then, and your other responsibilities fighting over who gets to ride shotgun - it can get to be too much for one person to handle!
So that’s when we can throw it all upon God; all that anxious thought needs somewhere to go, and who better to hear about than One who cares for you? That second word “care” is melo. (Ha ha. prayer can help you get mellow, that’s for sure.) It means, simply, to care about, and it’s in the present tense, active voice, indicative mood. So He cares about you now. He is the one doing the action of caring. And it’s really true (indicative mood).
That’s pretty good.
Throw your cares - the distracting anxious thought that divides your mind - onto the supreme being who actively, deliberately and really cares about you.
May 20th, 2008 at 8:18 pm
Great post Carolyn! There used to be a time in my life when I did give all my cares to God but I seem to have taken things back into my own hands which isn’t get me anywhere except more stressed out and more worried about things. Your post really made me stop and think about a lot of things. I’ll definitely be checking back here often!