The Unfolding (LIFE 102.5 / MyFaithRadio)

Transcript source: Whisper (large-v3, cleaned).

An epic four-part audio podcast series, The Christ. Father, forgive them. It’s the greatest story ever told. He is the light, the true light. Hear it in an all-new way. The tomb is empty. The Christ, wherever you listen to podcasts. Often how God brings us up is in weakness, and God had me on a journey that I’m glad I didn’t know what was next, but it was a process of continually dying to myself. God’s story, your life, unfolding short stories. I was a young, healthy person when on my honeymoon about 18 years ago, almost 18 years ago, I got an infection that led to chronic conditions that I still live with today. and it just really shook me up. Growing up, I was in a missionary home. My parents were missionaries and I had a relationship with Jesus. So thankful for that. But in these years when all of a sudden I was in a body that was not functioning well, I had to kind of take it to the next level. And so that was 2000s when I initially got sick and God often speaks to me that very often quoted verse, 2 Corinthians 12, 9, my grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness. Therefore, I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses so that Christ’s power may rest on me. And it’s so easy to say that, but when it comes to actually living it out, I have learned that it’s not easy. And weakness is not something that we want as humans and that I wanted in my life. And so I went to the hospital for a procedure. I was having a lot of intestinal problems and my heart rate was in the thirties. So they’re like, we’re not doing the procedure. You’re going to the emergency room. So went to the emergency room. They admitted me to the cardiac ward and I was in there for several weeks. I had to be put on a feeding tube because my I was so malnourished I my body wasn’t digesting food and you know I just I remember laying in that hospital bed I had two small kids at the time I was a young mom and thinking what like really am I going to be am I going to get out of here am I going to live I really felt in that moment like I was dying and God like these words just came before my eyes says I shall not die, but I shall live and declare the deeds of the Lord. And later I found out that was Psalm 118, 17. So I took those words and I said, okay, God, I am going to live by these words and I’m going to trust that you will fulfill them. Time goes on. My husband’s in the military. So he was in a cycle of a lot of deployments and training during that time. I was really at a time where I was struggling a lot with despair, really. Things in my health were continuing to go from bad to worse. And 2017, I woke up in the middle of the night. I couldn’t feel my arms. They were completely numb. So I sprang out of bed and started flopping around and still couldn’t feel them. So I got down on my knees and just started praying. I started praying every psalm that I had memorized and just crying out to the Lord like God what is going on and that started another string of appointments and I was admitted to the hospital again come to find out later that I had Lyme disease and it was causing a lot of nerve damage and pain that continues to affect me to this day also that was a point I think where I really hit rock bottom we had been praying you know for years for 10 years by that point we’ve been praying for healing like god i know you can heal i’ve seen you heal people and yet instead of healing my diagnoses were getting more severe i was getting more discouraged and so a few weeks after that you know this very low point i was it’s early morning hours and god spoke to me quite clearly he said care i want you to start writing And I thought, what? Like, what am I going to write? I have nothing good to write right now. I am at the worst point possible. And yet, as I procrastinated, God continued to push that on my heart. So a few weeks later, I did. I just started writing, processing the pain and the questions and the sorrow of this life that I was living and not understanding, you know, not understanding how God could be who he said he was. And my life could be so different than I thought it should be as a believer. But also just seeing how God was sustaining me. Miraculously, he was giving me words and sustaining me day by day, over and over. Somebody giving me a phone call, a word coming in from a radio station, You know, just something that where I knew, I knew without a shadow of a doubt that God was in control, that he saw me, that he was continuing to watch over every detail of my life. So I started at that point, I started a Facebook group called Suffering Well, and it really opened up a ministry to lots of people who started reaching out to me. And then I started a blog and last year I ended up writing a book. But it was, you know, it was this progression of God speaking this word, a few different words, you know, and just in a time where it felt like impossible that anything good could come of such a difficult situation, such wasted suffering, it seemed like to me. As I started looking outward then, looking to see opportunities that God was giving me with doctors or with people who I would meet on the street, so many opportunities where God would just open up these doors and give me an opportunity to share about Jesus, to share about my hope when life is so hard. And just a few nights ago, actually, I was getting ready for bed and I heard the Lord just speak to my heart out of the blue, like, Karis, the fruit from these 18 years is going to be better than what you will experience in your physical healing. And it just really caught me off guard. I, I, it was so clearly from the Lord, but as I continued, you know, just brushing my teeth and getting ready, this, this picture like of a timeline came into my mind. I just saw all the sorrow, all the hurt, all the pain from those years just like producing beautiful fruit and joy and just that God was so pleased. And it really brought just what I needed for that moment. And this is just an example of what I feel like God does so many times. Like He gives the word right when I need it and enables me to keep going. So I just, I feel like it’s the blessing that we don’t want to ask for, you know, being so desperate for God’s presence, being so desperate for hope and for joy and for answers that it drives. The story that I’ve lived out is like seeing how God drives us to these places of desperation in order to show us something so glorious that we would never see if I wasn’t maybe walking in a place that was so hard. And one of the verses that I come back to over and over again is in 2 Corinthians 1, where Paul says that, you know, we were so utterly burdened beyond our strength that we despaired of life itself. That this happened so that we would not rely on ourselves, but on God who raises the dead and that’s just something that I live by over and over again is is saying okay yes life life can be so despair but this happens so that we recognize okay I can’t rely on myself sometimes I feel like I can if I’m if I you know I’m in the right place but ultimately God wants us so reliant upon him that he can work through us right because it’s if it’s If it’s me, myself, coming back to the weakness thing that I started with in the beginning is like, if it’s me, then I’m going to receive the glory. But I know that I am so weak, that I’m so broken, that it has to be God that receives the glory for my life. Because I know of myself that I could not produce and I could not live out what he has called me to do apart from his Holy Spirit. So I know my story isn’t over and it’s not the fairy tale ending that I would hope for, but I can see how God is working and I know his promises won’t fail me and that I will see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living because that is what he promises. And man does not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God. And that’s really what my story comes down to is learning how to do that. So that’s what I’m standing on. With narration from John Rhys-Davies and Patricia Heaton. The Christ, wherever you listen to podcasts. In celebration of Easter, an epic four-part audio podcast series, The Christ. He’s not just a boy. Yet he is. And what will they do to him when they find out who he really is? They will worship him. Featuring the Emmy and Golden Globe Award-nominated voices of Tom Pelfrey, David Oyelowo, Paul Walter Hauser, John Rhys-Davies, and Patricia Heaton. My hour has not yet come. My son, your hour was written before time. It’s the greatest story ever told. Hear it in an all-new way. The Christ. He said open your ears, and they were open. An epic audio podcast series. The tomb is empty! Featuring an all-star cast. Any power that you have has been given to you from above by he who sent me. He claims to be a king. You are the father of lies and you have lost. It has already been written. Written by… Don’t miss an episode. Listen and follow the Christ wherever you get your podcasts.