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Whether it’s current national or international events, job-related stress, worries about our families, chronic health issues, personal relationships or a financial crisis, we don’t have to look far to find the source of anxious, spinning thoughts.
Can I survive this season? What if … ? Who can I really count on?
My own version typically involves a 3 a.m. wake-up call accompanied by a flurry of mental gymnastics as I think about every single task that needs to be done, rehearse conversations from the last few days, and try to work out the right answer to a myriad of challenges my family, career or business is facing.
Tell me I’m not the only one fighting for rest and peace.
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To some extent, the battle against anxious thoughts is one we’ll always wrestle with. But as someone who follows Jesus, I believe there is a way of living that helps us release the burden of anxiety.
In Luke 12:25-27, Jesus says:
“Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to your life? Since you cannot do this very little thing, why do you worry about the rest? Consider how the wildflowers grow. They do not labor or spin. Yet I tell you, not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these.”
The invitation to “consider the wildflowers” stops me in my tracks. Maybe it’s because where I live — southwestern Colorado — puts on a pretty spectacular display of wildflowers every summer.
I’ve spent a considerable amount of time walking through fields of flowers, talking to the Lord and sitting with this invitation. I was inspired to write my new devotional, “The Way of the Wildflower,” while being in God’s creation and realizing that if God takes care of the wildflowers, how much more will he take care of me?
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Here are five specific “ways of the wildflower” that I believe, if embraced, will help us live unburdened, even in the midst of circumstances that tempt us to toil and spin.
1. Wildflowers are dependent. They depend on God’s timing, the rainfall He allows, the seasons He has ordained and the ecosystem he has placed them in. They don’t have landscapers, fertilizers or a daily watering schedule, and yet they thrive. When we embrace this way of the wildflower — not demanding a specific storyline, season or more ideal circumstance — we let go of hustle and depend entirely on the God who created us.
2. Wildflowers are free. Free from worry, fear, fretting and caring for themselves. They’re not worried about storms on the horizon, dragging baggage from yesterday or anxiously laboring their days away. They exist in the place God put them, crowned with the glory he gave them. When we embrace this way of the wildflower, we can know what it means to be unburdened by what isn’t ours to fret about or carry.
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3. Wildflowers are resilient. They’re found in all kinds of unlikely places, from arid fields to dusty highways and rocky outcroppings on mountain peaks where there’s not even any soil to speak of. In fact, they seem to have a knack for springing up in conditions we’d deem unfavorable for growth.
When we who are in Christ embrace this way of the wildflower, we’re not dependent on our own strength or tenacity. Our resilience is a gift of the God who sustains us, enabling and supplying us with what we need to persevere.
4. Wildflowers are unhurried. When wildflowers aren’t actively growing, they’re dormant, which means there may not be any visible growth — but dormancy isn’t death; it’s rest. And it reminds us that wildflowers are never in a hurry to get to the next season or skip ahead to their blooming best.
When we embrace this way of the wildflower, we slow down, refusing to rush the process or resent the slow, quiet or seemingly unproductive seasons of our lives, and instead rest in God’s perfect timing.
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5. Wildflowers are beloved. I can’t help but marvel that God creates, designs and assigns extraordinary detail and beauty to individual wildflowers for his good pleasure, whether or not they’ve been discovered, identified or named.
No two wildflowers are alike — each comes with its own intricacies, details and specific traits. When we see the care with which God created wildflowers, we can’t help but consider how beloved they truly are.
When we embrace this way of the wildflower, we remember that we are uniquely known and cared for by God — precious and valued, even when we feel small or hidden.
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In a world that encourages us to be independent, live within “acceptable” parameters, move on to the next thing when we meet resistance, skip to the good part and question our worth, living the way of the wildflower is certainly countercultural — but not impossible.
The next time you wake up at 3 a.m., try considering the wildflowers and release your anxiety to the God who created you and promises to take care of you.
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