Jesus famously said, “Do not worry”, but we cannot stop worrying. Bombarded by personal worry about people we love and our shared future, constant global conflicts, rancorous politics, and church scandals, today we endure seemingly endless uncertainty. Yet instead of a healing refuge, the American church has become an anxious one. Politics divide and stokes fear. Caregiving is flattening the sandwich generation. It’s no wonder we’re overwhelmed. 

In Nervous Systems, Sara Billups explores personal anxiety, church anxiety and political anxiety alongside modern themes of scrupulosity, wellness culture, tradwifery, caregiving, and energy vampires, showing us what it means to live well in the very presence of anxiety. Finding relief in the Spiritual Exercises, she issues clear and hopeful daily practices in life’s small and large trials to foster a holistic, holy response that leads to lasting peace amid pervasive worry. 

“Sara Billups masterfully takes her reader by the hand and honors the deep complexity of what it means to be human and follow Jesus in a world like ours. This is a thoughtful, challenging, and hopeful read.” —Aundi Kolber, MA, LPC, therapist and author of Try Softer and Strong like Water  

“This book is deeply human, generous, relevant to our current moment, and thrumming with possibility for we who crave peace, not someday but here and now.” —Sarah Westfall, author of The Way of Belonging  

“Nervous Systems brims with rare candor, wisdom, and humor. Billups is an ideal guide for thorny terrain: open yet anchored, humble yet unafraid to interrogate uncomfortable truths about herself and others. The result is a book that exudes not just insight and courage but grace. The sparkling prose doesn’t hurt either.” —David Zahl, author of Low Anthropology and The Big Relief