Body Slams
Cast your burden on the Lord, and He shall sustain you; He shall never permit the righteous to be moved.
Psalm 55:22 (NKJV)
Yesterday, my eight-year old son surprised me. He asked me to sumo wrestle. Since we recently had a guest from Japan, I thought that’s where he heard the term. In any event, I wanted to spend time with my boy, so it was an easy decision, but what we ended up doing wasn’t exactly sumo. It was more like jump on Daddy’s back and drive him to the ground!
We faced each other on a small gymnastics mat, maneuvering left and right before lunging, jumping and riding the other person to the ground. Sometimes I was on top scoring the pin, but more often than not, he would dodge and duck and get the best of me. What we both seemed to enjoy was throwing the other person off our back and turning the situation to our advantage.
I thought of this as I lay exhausted from the twenty something matches we did, and it reminded me of this great verse. The Hebrew word shalah can be used for a wrestler throwing an opponent to the ground and so the psalmist is advising us to find relief from the everyday weights of the world by placing them on the Lord.
It’s a good reminder, God can handle anything. Any burden. Any situation. Any of our struggles. God invites us: “Dump it on Me!”
Lord, You know my concerns, You understand the things that get me down. I throw them onto You. Free me, Lord to live in peace, to live for You. Amen.