Let Him take care of the rest

Lord willing, I will be reviewing Hannah Anderson's new book, Humble Roots, in a couple weeks. I have not finished reading the entire book yet, but this passage was too good not to share. There are some days when it is more than enough to get through the day. Not that I've had any crises, but normal life can be so overwhelming at times. It feels especially more difficult when my nemesis, my inner Little Red Hen, tries to tell me that my only recourse is "do it myself." When I read this, it was a balm to my soul. I hope it encourages you as well.

Failure at small things reminds us of how helpless we are in this great, wide world. When little things spiral out of control, they remind us that even they were never within our control in the first place.

And this is terrifying.

Jesus understood this. He understood that small things can unsettle us more than large things; so when He called the people of Galilee to leave their anxiety—when He calls us to do the same— He does so in context of very mundane, very ordinary concerns.

“Do not be anxious about your life,” He assures them, “what you will eat or what you will drink, nor about your body, what you will put on.”...

“But if God so clothes the grass of the field . . . will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith?”

We may be unable to cope with the most basic realities of existence; but He isn’t. In fact, He’s already providing food for the birds and luxurious garments for the flowers. They don’t worry because they know that their Creator cares for them. They don’t worry because they know the One who keeps this world running...  

When we believe that we are responsible for our own existence, when we trust our ability to care for ourselves, we will have nothing but stress because we are unequal to the task. You know this. Deep inside, you know your limits even as you fight against them. You know your helplessness even as you press forward by sheer determination. But at some point, the world becomes too much, and the largeness of life threatens to overwhelm you. And when it does, you must stop. And you must do what Jesus told His friends and followers to do on that flowered hillside overlooking the Sea of Galilee: “Seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.”

Your heavenly Father knows what you need. He knows your heart is troubled. He also knows, better than you do, that all these things are beyond you. And so, this is what you must do, all that you must do: You must seek Him. And let Him take care of the rest.

From Humble Roots: How Humility Grounds and Nourishes Your Soul, Hannah Anderson, Moody Publishers, 2016, pp. 26-29.