Nervous Systems
Spiritual Practices to Calm Anxiety in Your Body, the Church, and Politics
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- $12.99
Publisher Description
An Honest Search for Personal and Collective Peace in Our Anxious Times
· Discover how to live well in a culture permeated with fear, worry, and anxiety
· Develop doable daily practices to promote peace both for yourself and in community
· Learn to face anxiety head-on rather than merely coping and compartmentalizing
Every era has its challenges, but ours seem to be majoring in anxiety. Bombarded (via screens) by constant global conflicts, rancorous politics, and church scandals, today we endure seemingly endless external stressors. The reasons are easy to find--division in politics and the pews, caring for kids or aging parents, and the rapid impact of social media on our psyches, to name a few. While exploring these origins may hold some benefit, Sara Billups is concerned with right now: How do we live well in the presence of pervasive personal and collective anxiety?
The dissonance between Jesus saying "Do not worry" and her heart's inability to stop worrying led Sara to seek out spiritual rhythms and practices that create a holistic, holy response to the anxiety brimming in our bodies, our churches, and our society.
Nervous Systems offers helpful, doable daily practices for anxiety in the large and small trials in our lives. This collection of personal and cultural observations invites us to let go in the presence of our anxiety. Join Sara in learning how, with God's help, to face anxiety head-on rather than trying to pray it away or, worse, grin and bear it.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
A more accepting, Jesus-centered Christianity can assuage many of the anxieties dominating modern society, according to this expansive treatise from That's the Spirit podcaster Billups (Orphaned Believers). Drawing on her own struggles with anxiety, which were supercharged by the Covid-19 pandemic and the challenges of caring for her aging parents, she assesses how the emotion shows up in today's world. She finds signs of anxiety in bodies that are overstimulated by technology; in a church that's increasingly ill-equipped to meet society's needs; and in a conservative politics that serves as a refuge from an unstable world, with rising fears about America's waning Christian identity pushing evangelicals, in particular, "into the arms of Donald Trump" and other politicians promising a return to order. Billups contends that the solution is a more inclusive Christianity that provides comfort without offering false promises and supports a humble and welcoming church community that "pursues an earthly holiness... inspired by the teachings of Jesus," including by using "words instead of weapons." While the thesis can sometimes get lost in lengthy meditations on Billups's own caregiving experiences, the links she draws between individual and systemic stressors are incisive and thought-provoking. This will provide stressed-out Christians with plenty of food for thought.
