The other day I got a phone call about something that was semi-bad news . Nothing really bad, just kind of a bummer. Well, awhile later I was feeling better and had actually forgotten the news I was given. I wasn’t feeling bad. Then I realized that I had gotten a message about something a bit disturbing and I kept trying to remember what it it was. Strange, here I was feeling okay trying to remember something that would make me feel not okay. I finally remembered it and the original bad feelings I had felt when I got the news came back. I had succeeded. I felt bad again!

When we give something to God, it feels wonderful because we are essentially giving the burden, worries, and cares of that thing over to Him. Philippians 4:6 tells us to, “Be anxious about nothing, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God.” And when we actually give our burdens over to Him, we experience the second part of that same verse which says “And the peace of God, which passes all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

Unfortunately, we tend to do what I did the other day with the problem I had forgotten. We “take back” what we have given to God. I took back what my bad memory had relieved me of and successfully started feeling bad again. In the same way, we have a very hard time giving things over to God and trusting all control to Him. During the war there used to be a saying in the air corp that said, “God is my co-pilot.” But in all reality that is wrong. He should be the pilot and as co-pilots we should keep our hands out the way. Most of us should not even be co-pilots! If we get anywhere near the cockpit we won’t be able to keep our hands off the controls. When it comes to the controls, we are out of control. We tell God to fly the plane and then slowly we start to take things back. We think we know a stretch of sky better than God… Or maybe things are looking pretty clear, so we can handle controls now… Or we have been here before, so God can go back and get a cup of coffee and we will handle thins . We are better off being a pilot passenger who God calls forward to take the controls when He deems is the right time, while he sits right by our side never taking a coffee break.

When I first started coaching I would take the entire burden on myself. I had a horrible time trying to delegate authority. But when I started getting coaches I trusted, I would turn more and more (never as much as I should have) over to them. The result was relief on my part. I was burdened by less because I had given some of my burden over. Occasionally, I would get take something back and the same old stress would return. When I finally gave something over and left the result up to that other coach, I could finally experience some peace. What I need to realize is that God is the head coach, not me. I am actually trying to run the show when he is the guy in charge. I really don’t need to give things over to Him, because they already belong to Him. I just need to stay out of the way and let Him have His way.

We need to trust in God and leave things with Him. We need to believe He loves us. We need to believe He wants us to experience the peace that He can provide. God has made many promises to us in His Word. It behooves us to read His Word so that we understand those promises. The Bible is like God’s resume. If we are going to turn our finances, our decisions, our home, our kids, and every phase of our life over to Him, we should probably check Him out. Reading the Word objectively will let us know what kind of God we have and we will be able to trust Him with our lives.

We put our trust in things every day. I trust the wheel won’t come off my truck on the way down Camas Mountain. I trust the taco I eat at Taco Bell isn’t tainted. I trust the raft I bought at Big Five won’t leak (oops, we will skip that one). I put my health and well being in the hands of others every day and yet, I want to relieve God of control over my life when I put my trust in hundreds of things outside my control every single day. I trust the untrustworthy and am suspect of the Trustworthy One.

If we have prayed about something and believe we have given it over to The Lord, but we find ourselves still worrying about it, then it is likely we have taken it back from God. Awhile back I had to take my truck into the

mechanic because there was a recall on my 1995 Ford. I had to get the cruise control fixed (it was found that it might stick in certain cases). I have been driving around a “death trap” for 15 years! Well, I am glad they fixed it, but sometimes I give something to God and recall it because I think I need to fix it myself. Once we give things over to Him, we should leave them with Him. There is nothing I can handle better than He can.

The old song says, “Cast all your cares upon Him because He cares for You.” Let’s not cast like fly fishermen do who cast and bring back and cast and bring back. Let’s cast like our grandson Nichols did one time at Cooper Creek. He didn’t flip the bail and the line broke, his lure shot out there a hundred feet and there was no getting it back. No reeling it back in, no seeing it again, it was part of the lake now. We need to cast our cares and leave them with God. If we do we will say the same thing Nick said as his lure was shooting through the air. He smiled and said, “No worries.”