Holding All Things with Open Hands
A Feature Review of
Nervous Systems: Spiritual Practices to Calm Anxiety in Your Body, the Church, and Politics
Sara Billups
Paperback: Baker Books, 2025
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Reviewed by Daniel Jesse
Sara Billups’s Nervous Systems is a timely exploration of anxiety, inviting readers into deeper spiritual engagement through the means of Ignatian disciplines. Billups writes with candor and compassion, positioning anxiety not merely as an individual struggle but as a communal phenomenon that echoes through families, churches, and societies. Her approach is holistic, urging us to respond not only as individuals but as members of interconnected communities and to seek spiritual disciplines that foster healing and holy attentiveness.
Central to Billups’s thesis is the invitation to embrace Ignatian spiritual disciplines, practices rooted in the centuries-old tradition of St. Ignatius of Loyola. Rather than offering quick fixes or shallow platitudes, Billups encourages readers to practice these disciplines to grow in attentiveness, discernment, and a holy response to anxiety. She draws on the Ignatian practice of examen, a daily reflection that helps individuals notice God’s presence and activity in their lives, even amidst anxious thoughts and feelings.
Billups’s writing is practical and accessible, guiding readers through the steps of prayerful reflection, imaginative contemplation, and spiritual discernment. She suggests that these disciplines are tools not only for personal growth but also for communal healing. By grounding ourselves in practices that help us listen, reflect, and respond in faith, we become better equipped to support one another and to face the uncertainties of our world. She makes her arguments through storytelling, which personalizes her claims, humanizes anxiety, and models how to navigate the mental and relational barriers.
One of the most compelling aspects of Nervous Systems is Billups’s insistence that anxiety is not merely a private, internal struggle. She writes movingly about how anxiety is shaped by and shapes our communities—how the fears and anxieties of one person can ripple outward, affecting families, congregations, and even the broader culture. Billups draws attention to the ways in which social, political, and spiritual anxieties intersect, creating a climate in which many feel overwhelmed and isolated.
Billups challenges the notion that anxiety is something to be hidden or managed alone. Instead, she invites readers to bring their anxieties into the light and to seek communal practices of prayer, support, and discernment. She acknowledges the vulnerability required to do this, but she also highlights the transformative power of communal care and spiritual solidarity. In Billups’s vision, healing begins not just with the individual but with the community’s willingness to attend to one another’s fears and hopes.
Billups concludes her exploration with an invitation to embrace what Ignatian tradition calls “holy indifference.” This is not apathy or detachment, but rather holding all things—joys and sorrows, anxieties and hopes—with open hands before God. Billups describes holy indifference as a posture of trust, where we are free from the tyranny of our own preferences and fears, and where we can respond to life’s uncertainties with faith.
Billups sees holy indifference as arising from dedicated spiritual discipline and support within community. It enables us to respond thoughtfully to anxiety, helping us find peace by trusting in God’s ongoing presence no matter our situation. By encouraging us to adopt this holy indifference, Billups presents an idea of spiritual liberation grounded in faith, a concept that resonates strongly in today’s anxious world. Although these insights fit well at the end, I wish Billups had woven them throughout the main text.
Nervous Systems is an accessible, profound invitation to face anxiety in ways that are both holistic and holy. Through Ignatian disciplines, communal care, and holy indifference, Sara Billups charts a path toward genuine healing and spiritual freedom, making her work a vital resource for anyone seeking to respond to anxiety in themselves and their communities.
Daniel Jesse
Daniel Jesse is a Humanities and Theology Professor working with AI inside and outside of the classroom, a Christian Worship researcher, and occasional preacher. He writes about Emotional Formation in the Church on Substack at: danieljesse.substack.com
 Reading for the Common Good From ERB Editor Christopher Smith "This book will inspire, motivate and challenge anyone who cares a whit about the written word, the world of ideas, the shape of our communities and the life of the church." -Karen Swallow Prior Enter your email below to sign up for our weekly newsletter & download your FREE copy of this ebook! |
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