Today at work, I had an incredibly anxious day. Nothing bad or abnormal happened. I woke up, got dressed, clocked in, and already felt on edge. To my co-workers, I most likely appeared normal at my desk. I worked on my assignments, ate lunch, listened to my playlist, and went to my meetings. I doubt many of them that pass by my desk every day know I have about one anxious day a week. If anxiety looks so human though, what else does it look like?

This is an adapted excerpt from Take Heart: God's Comfort for Anxious Thoughts by Lindsay Hausch.

A daily rhythm of time in God’s Word and in prayer is a way to abide in God. As we do these things, He rearranges our hearts and aligns them with His. This is a way to soften and prepare for the storms that test our hearts and our faith. For me, there are days when this happens over coffee at the breakfast table with kids chomping down their bananas, chatting and clambering for my attention. Sometimes, this is all that my season of life can accommodate, and so I take what I can get. I’ve learned that waiting for the “best” time for daily devotions means they don’t happen.

If you’re like me, you’re probably panicking a little bit right now. It feels like practically overnight everything went from bad to dangerous. I’m feeling very off-kilter, like I’m not quite sure what to do to move forward because I don’t know where forward is. I am a naturally anxious person, and so when it seems like the madness of the world has increased, I get worried. By that, I don’t mean I go out and panic-buy toilet paper, but I mean the pit I normally have in my stomach and the pressure in my head have grown. And without Jesus, I really don’t know how I’d cope.