Coming Soon...

I’ve always loved writing. It’s been a great way for me to process and apply truth to my heart over the years, as well as an opportunity to share what I’m learning and hopefully encourage others. So I’ve had various ideas and writing projects that I’ve worked on, but for reasons beyond my control, none ever came to fruition.

In battling chronic illness, writing suddenly became tremendously difficult, and I gave up the dream of anything ever panning out from a book or resource perspective. I also doubted my ability to write at all, because I found it to be so challenging. I stopped writing and even journaling for about a year and a half.

Then, an unexpected opportunity came to help write a biblical counseling booklet for chronic illness sufferers. Battling chronic illness personally opened my eyes to the lack of resources on this topic and the importance of a compassionate and hopeful approach to those who are suffering. So you can imagine my excitement and timidity when Dr. Mark Shaw said that we should write a booklet together!

Despite hardly writing a word for months on end, the words flowed seamlessly, and I knew exactly what I wanted to share. I can only attribute this to God's grace in how He's worked in my heart and the timing of this resource. I would have never chosen to write on this topic had I not walked through it and without someone else encouraging me to do it. Thanks to the help of a wise biblical counselor and author, the last year+ of work is finally nearing the end!

Hope and Help for Chronic Illness, co-authored with Dr. Mark Shaw, will be published this year! Honestly, I'm still in shock most days that it's actually happening. Our desire is that this booklet will be an encouraging, hopeful, compassionate resource for those battling chronic illness or walking with someone through its challenges.

Stay tuned for more of the story and for booklet updates… :)

When Life Hurts: Is God Really Enough?

“God is enough.”

You’ve heard this countless times. And so have I.

In theory, I know it’s true. But if I'm honest, I don’t always live as if it is true.

When a day is full of detours and setbacks, or my pain escalates again, or I physically crash, or bad new hits broadside, or everything feels like it's been taken away, and nothing seems to be getting better, I want to give up. I doubt God’s goodness. I don't believe He's enough.

Asking myself, “Is God enough for me?” in the midst of seemingly unbearable circumstances is painful. I want to say “yes”, but I also long for things to get better. I want the promise that I can have both.

Ultimately I want life to go my way.

That is incredibly difficult to admit. I think I deserve happiness or things to be easy and carefree. It’s hard to recognize those sinful desires until something I love is taken away and I get angry or bitter. However, having that temporary fulfillment of things going my way only tempts me find joy in my circumstances. Those things I think will make me happy may actually turn my heart away from God.

Habakkuk also had to ask himself the question, "Is God enough?" Things were quite ugly in his life too. There wasn’t even food—talk about a basic need! Everything was falling apart. It wasn't pretty. Yet in His grace, God brought Habakkuk to a place of joy, despite bleak circumstances:

“Though the fig tree should not blossom,
nor fruit be on the vines,
the produce of the olive fail
and the fields yield no food,
the flock be cut off from the fold
and there be no herd in the stalls,
yet I will rejoice in the Lord;
I will take joy in the God of my salvation.” 3:17-18

In regards to this passage, Matt Chandler comments:

“If Christ is your greatest joy, all circumstances push us towards Him. If He’s not your greatest treasure, then whatever you are ultimately treasuring is at risk of being removed from you. Christ is what can’t be taken from you; everything else can.”

God is working through those miserable circumstances we face today to wean us from our joy in temporary things and find joy in Him. We may not realize that we love God for what He gives us until those things are taken away. It is a tough process, as our idols are unveiled and our desires for comfort, pleasure, success, or whatever else are on display. But it it through this gruesome, refining process that God turns our joy from fleeting pursuits to everlasting joy in Him.

This means that those days full of pain, disappointment, and heartache are the gracious work of God. As we realize how broken and empty the pleasures and happiness of today are, we can find that God really is enough.