LEAVE IT IN HIS HANDS

 

As many of you know,  one of the things I am doing in this season of life is doing counseling and therapy on a part time basis  with individuals and couples as a licensed clinical mental health counselor in North Carolina and a licensed professional counselor in South  Carolina.    I generally see persons virtually in different locales across the Carolinas.  I am enjoying the opportunity to continue to help persons and see it as a ministry.    One of the things I see quite often i.. s people quite often is people feeling stress and anxiety.     There are all sorts of  reasons it seems that people are anxious:   job… relationships… world events… and the list goes on. 

As I pondered the stress and anxiety I see in my clients recently,   I was reminded of a place in the Blue Ridge mountains of Virginia.    Many years ago when I was a pastor in the Burlington NC area, the late Barney Davidson invited myself and other pastors to several retreats at a home he owned off the Blue Ridge Parkway near Ferrum Virginia.     It was a quiet, beautiful place with farmland and woods around it and a distant  view of the lights of Martinsville Virginia in the distance at night.  In front of the farmhouse that Barney owned was a pond.    Barney told that there were several large fish in the pond though I never saw any.    In the middle of that small pond was an island with a walkway that allowed persons to walk from the banks of the pond to the island.    On the island, Barney had posted at a sign.    Since it has been almost 30 years since I visited the spot,  I am not sure I remember the exact words on the sign but it was something like this:     “If you come to this island with troubles or stress, leave it here on the island in the hands of the Lord.”  

I suspect that there are more people who feel stress and anxiety than those I see as clients in my therapy and counseling practice.     Sometimes,   I feel it myself.   Oh, for the willingness to leave what stresses us and makes us anxious in the hands of the Lord.   Have a  joy-filled day.-  Pastor   Randy Wall

Prayer-    God,   help me to leave the things that trouble my soul in your hands.   Remind me, Lord, regularly that you able to do more for me that I ask or even imagine; through Christ our Lord.   Amen.