From Anxiety to Abiding: 7 Days to PeaceSýnishorn

The Spirit of the Sovereign Lord is on me, because the Lord has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim freedom for the captives and release from the darkness the prisoners. Isaiah 61:1

Today, let’s go back to the Garden of Eden, where the first humans appeared–the first complex, amazing, and wonderfully built, humans. Remember when God said, “ayekah?”, ‘Where are you’? Today we’re going to venture a bit more into that interaction between God and Adam and Eve, to explore how a deeper healing is available to us in our anxiety.

Throughout the Bible, we see God coming to His children, often appearing when He is giving someone a divine call (think Abraham and Sarah, Joseph and Mary, or Jonah), or when He is intervening (the story of Job). God is either preparing His people, or coming to assess the damage that has been done in their hearts.

We see God appearing before His children, too, when the Israelites are in the wilderness. They have been removed from their culture and homes, and “displaced”, much like Adam and Eve were after the Garden. Most often, the Hebrew word used for exile is “golah”, which means “to uncover, to expose, or to reveal”, (Holy Dark Places by Daniel S. McGregor).

We usually think of the wilderness as wandering in a barren land, but let’s try looking at it a bit differently. In many aspects, anxiety can feel like slavery under the Egyptians–like it is a captor that keeps us bound and chained, that we can never escape. Anxiety can also feel like the ‘wilderness’--barren and confusing and full of our own wandering.

But God is in the business of setting us free. We see that narrative all throughout the Bible. He is also in the process of making us holy, “set apart” and able to worship (love) Him fully, just like He did with the Israelites. We are often praying that our anxiety would be taken away, and I believe God does want us to be set free from the fear and worry we experience in our anxiety, but I also believe He wants to help us “uncover” (golah) the ways our anxiety has taken hold of us, and the way anxiety creeps in as unbelief.

In order to do this, we must continue becoming attuned to our anxiety. We’ve explored the spiritual and physical aspects of anxiety, and now we’re going to go deeper. After the devotional, I invite you to practice mindfulness–a practice used to become more aware--which I have provided just below.

This specific practice focuses on our five senses (another amazing way God made us to interact with the world), to help us better identify how anxiety is acting in our bodies.

I believe the offer is that anxiety doesn’t have to be your full and total experience, day in and day out. By seeking healing in our inner worlds, and making the deepest parts of our heart uncovered and known, we can receive healing and peace like nothing else can offer. As long as we are willing to leave our captor behind, we can receive the rescue of God, however He would offer it. I think we can all agree that we, like the Israelites, wouldn’t prefer to be rescued and led through the wilderness, but knowing our healing may come in difficult, mysterious, and even miraculous ways, helps give us eyes to see and ears to hear, to be on the lookout for it.

Much of anxiety may feel like wandering through the desert; I know mine often does. But what if it is actually the way God is uncovering our hurts and disappointments, to find a deeper connection with Him? By now we know that we do not have to be afraid of being unloved because we are securely attached to the love of God. We now also have a better understanding of our physical body, and the way it was created to alert us of danger, to help us stay alive. So we extend compassion to our complex bodies and brains, and the way they are doing the best they can. We move into our spiritual self—our soul—and venture into deeper understanding.

Father, Son, and Spirit, I give to you my entire experience of anxiety. I don’t know what to do with it, how to make sense of it, or how to stop it. I need your help, to free me from the captive nature of anxiety, and to uncover the hurt and fear I have experienced. Come, Father, gently and with compassion, and offer me Your healing. I’m ready to receive it. Amen.

Parenting Tip: Mindfulness works great for kids, too! When they are overwhelmed or frightened, ask them what they Hear and Taste, what they can Feel on their fingers, what they Smell, and what they See. Ask them each one individually, gently, and quietly. They may need some coaching on these, depending on their age. This “grounding” technique helps a child to get out of their mind and body for a moment, and notice things around them, which generally quiets the brain and helps bring breathing back to normal. Once they’ve calmed, they may be able to tell you what’s overwhelming them. If your child prays, you can also incorporate this into their prayer. (I.e. Jesus, my heart is beating really fast and I pray for your help.)

Mindfulness Practice

First, get comfortable and ground your feet or bottom on the floor or ground. Remember your breathing exercise from yesterday, and begin finding a stable, easy-to-maintain breath. We will utilize our five senses–Hear, Taste, Touch, Smell, and See.

(For the first four senses, it can be easier to close your eyes to really tune in.)

First, what do you Hear? Describe or identify to yourself what you Hear.

Next, do you Taste anything? Have you recently eaten anything, or had anything to drink? If not, think of your favorite treat. Can you imagine the way it feels and tastes in your mouth?

Then, what do you Feel under your feet, on your skin, with your fingers? Describe to yourself anything you can feel physically around your body.

Now, what do you Smell?

Finally, what do you See? Can you define and describe to yourself all that you see?

Now, what do you sense internally? How would you rate your anxiety on a scale of 1-10 (10 being the worst it has ever been)? What thoughts are you having? What do you feel in your body? How is your breathing?

You don’t have to do anything with these experiences. Instead, you are just noticing them. Mindfulness helps you to stop, and find calm and connectedness in your body, so you can attune to your thoughts, needs, feelings, etc.. It can be helpful anytime, anywhere.

For this practice, I am inviting you to become more attuned for a few reasons. One, so many of us experience anxiety on a regular basis, and we have become almost numb to how it feels, and hardly realize we’re experiencing it. We’ll reach for solutions without realizing we’ve been needing them! Second, knowing how your anxiety feels gives you some words to take to God when asking Him to uncover the roots or causes of your anxiety.

As you practice mindfulness, ask your body and your mind and your soul how it’s feeling, so you can express it to God. When you do, does He respond to you? Does He have anything to say on the matter? Do any verses of Scripture or songs of worship come to mind? If anything comes to you, write it down for today. We’ll come back to it tomorrow. The prayer above will help you get started if you need some extra guidance.