The Key to Anxiety

Two girls, fourteen bags, one taxi; That is how our Sunday morning started. Our team felt prompted to spend a couple of nights on what is called the Asia side of Istanbul. This doesn’t sound like much of a hike, I mean, it is only one city after all, but the sections of the city are casually split by the ocean. That being said, instead of braving the train and ferry with our packs, we decided to taxi them all over while the rest of the crew takes the public transit to meet us. This seemed like a fine plan, and we were rather pleased with ourselves until our confused taxi man dropped us and our bags on the side of the road. We seemed rather stranded, but truth is that when you are letting Holy Spirit guide you, you’re never stranded; you’re set up.

My five-foot-tall, intimidating self guarded our packs in the street while my teammate, Karis, tried to find our hostel. Karis reported back with the good news of finding our hostel, but the bad news that it was closed. Thankfully the rest of our team appeared out of nowhere like sim characters, and we told them the situation. Thus began the game, Holy Spirit hide and seek. We strolled through the streets of Kadikoy only to find everywhere was either out of our budget or booked. Eventually, we stopped to rest on a curb for a bit, and that’s when our door opened. Classic God right? An American man passed by us and talked to us for a bit. He ended up asking why we had been sitting on the curb for so long, and we explained our situation to him. It so happened that he and his girlfriend were leaving their Airbnb a night early and offered for us to stay there.. for free! We got to spend the evening with them and talk to the curious couple about the Lord and pray for healing which is way better than staying in some hostel we would have set up for ourselves.

The reason I share this story with you, dear reader, isn’t to place emphasis on the stress of our situation that Sunday morning. It is to emphasize the lack of stress amidst any situation that was thrown at us. I was sitting on the streets of Istanbul with no place to go, no place to lead my team to, yet it was the most rested, and at peace I had felt all week. I knew the Lord was doing a work. I trusted that He had guided us thus far, and it is not in His character to let me go. I knew He was going to take care of us.

“Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing? Look at the birds of the air: they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they?”

Matthew 6:25-26

Notice it wasn’t in our searching that we found a solution. It was in our resting that the solution was sent to us. In American culture, we are taught our whole lives the key to solving our anxiety is to obsess over what is next and to always plan ahead. That’s the opposite of the gospel. It’s ok to wake up and not know where your life is going. It’s ok not to have your life mapped out. Because even sitting on the side of the street, He takes care of us. He will take care of that debt. He will take care of those bills. He will take care of all your great unknowns. That weight doesn’t have to rest on our shoulders alone. He wants to carry them. The key is to rest and trust in Him.

He wants to free you of every little worry. What worry should you give Him today?