Cast all your worries upon him because he cares for you.  (I Peter 5:7)

I am a worrier.  I come from a long line of worriers, especially on my mother’s side.  Worrying comes naturally to me.  I won’t go into all the things about which cause me to worry, nor will I try to convince you how bad worrying is for your mental, emotional, physical and spiritual health.  (It is bad for you!)  Let’s just say that I am deeply familiar with worry.

In my spiritual journey, I have been blessed by various reminders and encouragements about not worrying.  A couple in particular resonated strongly, so I will share them in case you find them useful.  The first: Worry is the Devil (that “roaring lion” Peter warns about) tricking me to make me forget that I can rely on God.  My wife used to tell me that.  The second (which I heard comedian Stephen Colbert say in an interview with James Martin, S.J.):  When Jesus instructed (repeatedly) in the Sermon on the Mount, “Do not worry . . . “ (see Matthew 6: 25-34), that is a command, not a suggestion.

There have been some intended encouragements that I found to be particularly unhelpful.  “Don’t worry” is one.  I would if I could.  I often ended up worrying about how I was worrying too much.  “Just let go of your worry” is one of these.  Let go of it?  Where do I put it?

Fortunately, our first reading provides an answer:  With humility, cast your worries – all of them – on God.  How liberating to know that I can ask God to take my worries and He will!  The second part of that sentence, the “why,” is even more wonderful:  because He cares for you.  God cares for you.  As we use this Lenten season to come closer to God, isn’t it exhilarating to be reminded that God cares for us and wants to be close to us?