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When Rachel started visiting a church, she was looking for something to help her handle stress. She was upper management in a corporation with hundreds of employees, and the long hours and tough decisions were getting to her.

Because several of her close friends had recently moved away, Rachel also was glad to make new friends at church. She volunteered with one of the ministry programs and joined a small group. Eventually, she was praying regularly with some other women—the last thing on earth she thought she'd ever do. Her idea of God was more like the life force of the universe than what the other women believed in.

But as they got to know each other, Rachel opened up about the anxiety that plagued her. She feared making costly mistakes at work. She feared spending her life alone. She feared she was in the wrong career but didn't know what to do instead. She feared trying to survive with less than a six-figure salary.

One day, one of the other women talked about sin in her life.

Sin. It dawned on Rachel that for her anxiety might be a sin. Maybe God was this personal being the others believed in, and maybe Rachel's frantic efforts to figure life out on her own was a slap in God's face. A sin. Rachel had wanted a God to save her from stress, but now she thought maybe she needed a God to save her from sin.

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