Bella Schroeder

Look at the birds. They don’t plant or harvest or store food in barns, for your heavenly Father feeds them. And aren’t you far more valuable to him than they are? Can all your worries add a single moment to your life? – Matthew 6:26-27 

There has been a theme cropping up in my conversations with kids and friends and those around me – anxiety. It’s not surprising; I work in youth ministry and the current statistic around anxiety is that one in four adolescents will be diagnosed with some type of anxiety disorder. Of course, I would be talking about this in conversation; it’s a part of life for my young friends.

This theme has come up not just with teenagers though but within my community, with people my age, even with older people. Sometimes, people have been directly using the word and other times it’s a little bit hidden, usually masked by words like worry or hurry and unrest. The truth is, life can be weary and worrisome for all of us – not always to the point of developing a mental health disorder or having a crisis but certainly to the point of becoming a topic of conversation or being mentioned passively.

The other day, I was on the phone with my friend, Chris, talking about life, transitions, changes and decisions. Chris is a good listener. He’s also wise. He takes time to be curious, to hear you and he doesn’t shy away from telling me when he thinks people are choosing unhealth or harm.

I love talking to him and have great respect for him, because of all those things yes, but mostly because he always leads our conversations towards prayer. He will typically ask partway through a conversation if we can make space to be quiet and listen to Jesus. We listen for words or phrases and sometimes even pictures and images, and then we share them with each other and invite the Lord into defining what those things might actually mean if it’s unclear.

This time, when we were quiet and listening to Jesus, I actually had my eyes open and was looking around. I was sitting in my front yard. My husband and I bought a house a little more than a year ago, and the landscaping has been one of the biggest struggles to work on. The previous owners of our property went through a number of landscape trends and changes.

At one point, the yard was all rock. Then, they decided they wanted plants, so they brought in dirt and landscape fabric but didn’t quite take out all the rocks. Then they got tired of the weeds and brought in bark mulch to cover up everything and took out all the plants. So, as you can imagine, it’s been a mess to undo and make into something new. There’s only so much we have been able to do in the first year.

As I listened to the Lord and looked around, I was struck by the defined lines I could see of the work we had done and that we hadn’t yet touched. I’ve cut out new garden beds, been working on making the soil healthy again, removed rocks little by little and planted as many plants as I could. These garden beds look somewhat healthy compared to the lawn – if you can call the lawn that. Really, it’s just layers of rock and dirt and landscape fabric and weeds and bark mulch.

But the garden beds have flowers that are blooming, there are bugs in the soil again, bees buzzing in between plants; they’re alive and growing. We’ve taken care of the garden beds.

As I noticed all this, I felt the Lord draw my attention to my surroundings as an image for the conversations I’d been having with others and the worries that had been occupying my own

mind. “All I’ve asked you to do is care for the garden beds, nothing less, nothing more. Why be so worried about all that surrounds it,” I heard him asking me. The truth is, I like to be in control, and I like to be in charge, and I like to worry. I didn’t want to tell the Lord those things, but he knows anyway, so I did. And I felt a sense of relief when he reminded me again, “Just take care of the garden beds.”

I wonder, how much of our lives do we spend thinking, worrying and being anxious about the things the Lord hasn’t asked of us? I know I do this quite often. I toil and work and hurry through things before even considering if they’re for me to toil, work and hurry on about. Sometimes, I just want to do important, good things. Sometimes, I just want Jesus to notice me. Sometimes, worrying feels good. It’s silly and sad really, because the Lord always notices us. The truth is, we’re just going too fast to notice his noticing.

My invitation to you all today is a simple one. Perhaps, you have been anxious and worried, and if you have, would you consider what the Lord is truly asking of you? Maybe, take a moment to breathe and be quiet and listen. Ask God what you are supposed to actually care for. And if he tells you, try not to fight it but accept it gratefully. Actually give yourself room to feel the relief and release that comes with knowing what you should be concerned about. Who knows? Maybe in this season, it’s as simple as a few garden beds to care for. Maybe, you’re just supposed to be growing some things for a while and listening to the birds. That, my friends, is important work, too. And more importantly, when you slow down enough and do the work you are called to, you will more readily notice the Lord noticing you.

Bella Schroeder is the area director of Crook County Young Life. She can be reached at 541-325-9862.