Cast all your anxiety on Him because he cares for you.
(1 Peter 5:7)
This week, university studying has started. The joy and exuberance of Welcome Week – the exciting noise of young people freshly away from home, discovering new friends – has given way to early bus journeys and lecture-room learning. For many, there is a sense of relief. The pace of Welcome Week can only last a short time! For others, however, new anxieties arise.
The excitement, newness and party atmosphere can go a long way to mask hidden fears. These can surface as the studying gets underway. The reality of homesickness, the challenge of finding new friends, and the practical difficulty of learning how to live and look after oneself, can all begin to crowd in. An added issue is that when you look around and see others apparently working so well, it makes it even more difficult to ask for help. (In fact, of course, bravado is another way to cope with anxiety. They may be just as anxious.)
When I am talking to people, very often they start using language that reflects that they have more faith than they think they have. This is fascinating. One of my favourite phrases is ‘The certainty of hope in the mystery of God.’ For the fully committed Christian – the person signed up to belief – that certainty of hope is of course Jesus Christ. However, many people don’t yet know that certainty, but most of these people are still aware of the divine somewhere. That is the power of the word ‘mystery.’ So therefore, this phrase is a catch-all phrase that gathers together people at all stages of faith.
In Peter’s first letter, he writes, ‘Humble yourselves, therefore, under God’s mighty hand, that he may lift you up in due time.’ Perhaps this is a call to us all to admit and acknowledge our awareness of God – the divine always prompting a sense of awe, wonder and humility. So, then the phrase, ‘Cast all your cares on him because he cares for you,’ has an added power and meaning.
Some people think aloud. Others talk to themselves as they’re working. I believe this phrase is one that we can apply to everyday life. Perhaps with the added words, ‘God please help.’
Nigel Rawlinson, University Chaplain, University of Bath
3 October 2024
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