Birthday Math — 5:7 and 57


I’ve always loved having May 29th as my birthday.  As a child, it coincided with the end of the school year and the beginning of summer vacation.  Now, at the ripe young age of 57, it feels just as festive.  Today I’ve spent my first morning being 57 working on a sermon from 5:7.

It’s the upcoming TDF message for June 7, and the text is 1 Peter 5:7Casting all your care on Him for He cares for you.

The Greek word Peter used – cast — occurs only one other time in the New Testament, where it is translated threw.  In the story of the Triumphal Entry, some of the disciples threw their coats on the donkey as a saddle for the Lord Jesus.  The idea is that just as the disciples took off their cloaks and threw them on the donkey, so we take off our anxieties and cast them on the Lord. 

Paul Gerhardt put it this way in his poem:  “Commit Whatever Grieves Thee,”  which is timeless hymn, whatever our age:

Commit whatever grieves thee
Into the gracious hands
Of Him Who never leaves thee,
Who Heav’n and earth commands.
Who points the clouds their courses,
Whom winds and waves obey,
He will direct thy footsteps
And find for thee a way.