The phone call comes with hard news. Someone I love is in a difficult situation. By the time I hang up, I feel a weight on my shoulders, like it all depends on me.

I begin to worry. This is what I can do, isn’t it? I can carry my worry around like a dog with an old bone. I can gnaw and twist, bury it and dig it up again. Surely this will be helpful, certainly this will save the day.

But into that place of fear, it seems I hear a gentle whisper in my heart, “Your worry cannot change the world, only God can.”

Luke 12:25 says, “Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to your life?” Who of us by worrying can make the prodigal come home, the marriage be restored, the meeting go well, the pressure come off, the lights come on, the kids stay safe, the wrong be undone, the project turn out right?

Worry can be seductive because it feels like control. If we are worrying, then we must be helping. But Jesus, in all his gentleness and kindness, his extravagant mercy and care, takes the weight of worry from our hands.

Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothes? Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? Can any one of you by worrying add a single hour to your life?

And why do you worry about clothes? See how the flowers of the field grow. They do not labor or spin. Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these. If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, will he not much more clothe you—you of little faith?

So do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own. -Matthew 6:25-34

Isn’t that what we really want? We long to know someone is taking care of the people we love, the situation we don’t understand, whatever makes our pillow soggy with salty tears. God watches over the sparrows with their wispy feathers and fragile bones. He will do even more for us, with our tender hearts and breakable lives.

After the call I sit on the edge of my bed and listen to a song, headphones in my ears, hands folded on my lap. I whisper, “God, I release this person I love to You.” I add more words, requests, and hopes. I will say this again in the kitchen. In the car. As I sit in a coffee shop. Releasing worry isn’t an instant event, it’s an imperfect process.

I’m learning what frees our hearts isn’t worry; it’s worship. In other words, taking all the hard things to Someone who cares for us. Choosing to trust and let go. Believing he will mysteriously work it all together for good, that the story isn’t finished yet.

Here’s what we can rest in today: The only One who has ever been able to bear the weight of the world on his shoulders is still strong and loving enough to carry all that concerns us too.