The Key Holder

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s a teenager, I was always searching from something I had misplaced around our house.  Usually it was my watch or my rings.  I would take them off, lay them somewhere, and make a mental note to retrieve them later.  As luck would have it, I remembered the part about retrieving the items but the part about their location must have been written in invisible ink.  I would run frantically through the house picking up every piece of paper, searching underneath all the furniture, and rummaging through every drawer, all to no avail.

At this point I would enlist the help of everyone in the house.  After several minutes of sweeping our home, my mom would come across the item. It took her almost no time to find it and it was usually in plain view.  Every time this happened—and it happened a lot—I would get the same advice, “Put your stuff in one place and you’ll never have to worry about where it is.”

Like most teenagers, I didn’t listen. I knew her advice was sound and I knew it was the right thing to do; I just didn’t do it.  When I starting driving, my keys joined the list of things I lost on a regular basis.  I was always looking for them and we never seemed to find them in the same place twice!  Finally, my mom purchased a key holder which dad mounted next to the back door.  Mom’s message was simple—“Hang your keys on the key holder and you’ll never have to worry where they are!”

For the first few weeks, I did just fine.  I would come into the house and hang my keys on the key holder.  When I needed to go out, I knew right where my keys were and I grabbed them on my way out the door.  I hadn’t transferred this concept to my watch or my rings.  I still lost them on a constant basis but I did know where my keys were and that was one less thing I had to worry about.  After a few weeks, however, I was back to my old tricks, failing to hang my keys on the holder and creating a stir in the house until they were found.     

The concept of the key holder has direct application to the Christian walk, especially when it comes to facing the problems and difficulties of life.  Jesus admonishes us not to worry because God will take care of our needs and provide for us.  At various times during our walk with the Lord, we find it easy to let Him carry our burdens and our worries.  He invites us to bring all our cares to him because he knows we can’t carry them on our own.

1 Peter 5:7 reminds us that we are to “hang” our burdens on the Lord, “Cast all your anxiety on him because he cares for you.”  Please notice that Peter does not suggest we do this; he commands that we do it.  We are to roll all our cares, all our worries, all our fears, and all our doubts on to Jesus’ shoulders.  We are to do this because Jesus cares for us.  When we hang our burdens on him, we know where they are and we don’t spend our time being anxious, running around frantically encountering and creating one problem after another. 

As long as my keys were on the key holder, I didn’t even think about them.  As long as they were hanging by the back door, there was no cause for alarm and I didn’t get stressed out over a mere set of keys.  However, if they weren’t on the key holder I grew frantic.  Everything in the house became a potential hiding place for the keys and the more I searched the more anxious and frustrated I became.

This is the secret Jesus would have us learn today. When we refuse to cast our burdens on the Lord, we leave them lying all around us.  They become sources of great frustration and strife for us because we are constantly thinking about them and confronting them.  However, if we would just hang them on Jesus, all our anxiety, all our frustrations, and all our worries would disappear.

Why is it that we refuse to hang our cares on him?  Why is it we insist on remaining frustrated and anxious when the solution to our problem is so simple?  Have you hung the worrisome keys of life on Jesus?  He is waiting for you to do that. He’s just inside the door of your heart!  Won’t you hang those keys on him today?  If you listen closely you will hear him whispering my mom’s advice, “Hang your burdens on me and you will never have to worry about them again.”  So, what are you waiting for?