By Katherine Wolf
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The podcast currently has 76 episodes available.
Can I have 27 minutes of your day? That’s all I need to convince you of something you’ve probably never allowed yourself to believe: you are worthy of care.
I’m highly qualified—and highly persuasive—in making this pitch to you because, after becoming significantly disabled as a 26-year old, I can truly say that I am at peace with my place as a care-receiver. All thanks to 5 mindset shifts. (And a lot of help from Jesus.)
If you haven’t reached that place of bone-deep peace, I’m going to change your mind. Or if you’re a caregiver for a person who needs a lot of extra help, I’m going to invite you into a new way of seeing your situation.
Here’s a preview of what I’ll share on tomorrow’s episode of The Good/Hard Story Podcast. Subscribe on your fave podcast platform to make sure you get the episode tomorrow.
Identifying the lies you’re believing about needing care
Realizing you’re not unique in your need for care
Confronting your bias against dependence
Reframing caregiving as an invitation, rather than a duty
Finding the “brand” of care only you can give
I am so passionate about this conversation, and I want you to join me in it. If you need a radical mindset shift when it comes to being a caregiver or a care-getter, this episode is for you.
You asked, we answered. And you know we never shy away from the messy, complex, and possibly even invasive questions because we want to be your living survival guides through it all. Bring it on, people!
This week’s episode of The GoodHard Story Podcast is a special “ask us anything” sesh with me and Jay all about how we’re navigating suffering alongside our nearest and dearest—kids, families of origins, friends that feel like family, and even each other. Sit down with us to hear some deeply personal (yet somehow universal) experiences, opinions, and bits of advice.
We’re sharing all kinds of thoughts about…
Engaging kindly with family members who are waiting for you to be “healed”
Feeling like a burden to your family and friends
Raising kids who are frustrated by your family’s limitations
Celebrating what we have now while acknowledging what we won’t get back
The miraculous power of making new memories
Shielding our kids from suffering
Finding your “framily” in the places you probably don’t want to find them
Deciding to have another baby after my stroke
If you need help believing your hardships could be a gift to the people you love most, this episode is for you.
Hope Heals Camp
Find the full story of deciding to have another baby in Treasures in the Dark Entry 66: Carpe Diem
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Grief, then gratitude. The longer I live and the more pain I encounter, I’m further convinced that this is the healthy cycle of suffering: grief then gratitude. Mourn the life you thought you’d have, then give thanks for the one right in front of you.
Because if we’re honest, most of us have some deep-down assumptions about what our lives should look like. For me, that assumption didn’t include a massive stroke or disabilities. And for my friend Sho Baraka, his perfect life plan didn’t involve raising sons with autism.
Sho is living out his good/hard story in that grief-and-gratitude rhythm, and he shared all about how he got to that place. Today, Sho is receiving his family—and his life—as an “abstract masterpiece of what the Master did.”
Whew, how good is that?
If you join us in this conversation, here’s what you’ll take away:
Encouragement for when we don’t get the miracles we hope for
How to see suffering as an opportunity rather than a punishment
A new way to respond to uninvited prayers for healing
Insight for grieving the loss of the lives we thought we’d have
Advice for married people raising kids with disabilities
If you need to release your demands for a perfect life and open your hands to the gifts of the life you actually have, this episode is for you.
Show Notes:
Sho Baraka on Instagram
And Campaign
He Saw That It Was Good: Reimagining Your Creative Life to Repair a Broken World by Sho Baraka
The Big Tent Initiative from Christianity Today
A Prayer for Parenting a Child with Special Needs
Every Moment Holy Volume 3
“Words, 2006”
Spectacular Bond: Reaching the Child with Autism by Miriam Blank
ASD Reading
***
There's so much more to the story: Click here for more messages of hope, free resources, and opportunities to connect with me!
Follow me in Instagram: @hopeheals
Subscribe to The GoodHard Story Podcast!
Apple Podcasts
Spotify
Want a little hope in your inbox? Sign up for the Hope Note, my monthly digest of only the good stuff, like short reflections from me and a curated roundup of the Internet’s most redemptive content. Subscribe here.
Get to know us:
Hope Heals
Hope Heals Camp
Mend Coffee
My son was just six-months and five days old when I nearly died. Virtually 100% of my parenting career has been informed by the deepest kind of pain. I often find myself wondering, if I could, would I give my sons a different story? One that didn’t include my stroke and all the suffering it caused?
I didn’t have much help wrestling with that question as a new (and newly disabled) mom. So I want to encourage and equip you—the mom or dad struggling to shield their kids from the suffering—with practical advice for parenting through your pain.
Our kids are gonna survive the suffering. And, spoiler alert, I believe they might even be better because of it.
Join me and my unbelievably wise friend Susan to find out how to…
Intentionally narrate your family story to your kids
Empathetically encourage resilience
Reframe overwhelm as abundance in your home
Guide your family through non-linear grief
Prevent raising kids who are afraid of the world
Discern what slack to cut in your home during hard seasons
Find rest for yourself so your can parent well
If you need a parenting pep talk from someone who’s processing her own pain, this episode is for you.
Show Notes:
The Hiding Place by Corrie ten Boom
Raising Girls and Boys Podcast with David Thomas and Sissy Goff
“True hospitality is when someone leaves your home feeling better about themselves, not better about you”. - Shauna Niequist
Scriptures referenced in this episode:
James 1:4
Romans 5:3
Romans 8:28
Ephesians 4:1
***
There's so much more to the story: Click here for more messages of hope, free resources, and opportunities to connect with me!
Follow me in Instagram: @hopeheals
Subscribe to The GoodHard Story Podcast!
Apple Podcasts
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Want a little hope in your inbox?
Sign up for the Hope Note, my monthly digest of only the good stuff, like short reflections from me and a curated roundup of the Internet’s most redemptive content. Subscribe here.
If you’re like me, you often hear from people reflecting back on how they made it through a hard time. We need those stories, and I value them deeply. But I really, really want to hear from the people who are in the thick of their pain, without a neat resolution or final closure in sight. My dear friends Brent and Ashley were kind enough to share their experience of present-tense pain, specifically in the form of a life-altering medical diagnosis.
As you and I know all too well, hurt refuses to be contained. It reverberates through families and communities. Brent and Ashley are no exception. Their suffering has had a profound effect on their marriage, their kids, and their friendships. But so has their hope.
Live from the center of the storm, Brent and Ashley are giving you and me a look into how they manage to make it through each day. And I am so eager for you to benefit from their generous, hard-won wisdom.
If you join me on this episode of the GoodHard Story Podcast, here’s what you’ll take away:
Proof that investing in your community today matters for tomorrow
Why Christians should be the first to acknowledge the sting of death
Practical insight for having hard conversations with young kids about how your family is hurting
Encouragement that your suffering can be an invaluable gift to the people in your life
Why you shouldn’t wait for easy times to start making memories with the people you love
If you need some honest but hopeful company in your misery, this episode is for you.
Show Notes:
Ashley Monogue Photography
Integrus
Hope Heals Camp
Scriptures referenced in this episode:
Ecclesiastes 7:2
Subscribe to The GoodHard Story Podcast!
Apple Podcasts
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Want a little hope in your inbox?
Sign up here for the Hope Note, our monthly digest of only the good stuff, like reflections from Katherine and a curated digest of the Internet’s most redemptive content,
Get to know us:
Hope Heals
Hope Heals Camp
Mend Coffee
Instagram
I’ve been healed in so many ways by learning to tell my story. But there’s some work that needs to happen before we can tell our stories. That work starts with our emotions.
The stories of your life and mine are hidden beneath our emotions. When we understand the emotions, we understand the story. And, as I said, understanding our own stories is totally crucial to healing and wholeness. (Why do you think I tell my story for a living?!)
This conversation with Adam Young is a bucket list item for me. Adam is a brilliant trauma therapist who specializes in supporting people in understanding the story of their lives. The harm, the heartache, and the miraculous joy to be found in the midst of all the hurt. His work has been transformative for me.
Friend, you cannot miss this conversation because God might just use Adam’s wisdom to transform you too.
If you join me on this episode of the GoodHard Story Podcast, here’s what you’ll take away:
Why the past might still feel present to you
How we know negative emotions belong in the “Christian plot”
Why your biggest trauma isn’t the only story that matters in your life
How to stop minimizing your experience of hurt so you can move toward healing
How to gather a community that can bear witness to your hurt and healing
If you’re searching for an empathetic guide to emotional health, this episode is for you.
Show Notes:
The Place We Find Ourselves Podcast
Bessel van der Kolk - https://www.besselvanderkolk.com/
Ep. 16 Why Lament (Surprisingly) Leads to Life and Freedom
Dan Allender
Curt Thompson
GoodHard Story Podcast Episode 68 with Debra Fileta
Confessional communities
Treasures in the Dark
Scriptures referenced in this episode:
Job 9 and 10
John 11:35
Jeremiah 6 and 8
Habakkuk 3:17-18
Genesis 50:20
Psalm 119:32
Romans 12:15
***
There's so much more to the story: Click here for more messages of hope, free resources, and opportunities to connect with me!
Follow me in Instagram: @hopeheals
Subscribe to The GoodHard Story Podcast!
Apple Podcasts
Spotify
Want a little hope in your inbox?
Sign up for the Hope Note, my monthly digest of only the good stuff, like short reflections from me and a curated roundup of the Internet’s most redemptive content. Subscribe here.
God is giving you and me permission to feel our feelings. But are we giving permission to ourselves?
I’m on a quest to engage my emotions with health and wholeheartedness, and Jennie Allen joined me on a leg of the journey. Jennie is a friend of mine who happens to have written the book on understanding and expressing our feelings as God intended us to.
My conversation with Jennie is as heartfelt as it is practically applicable to your life. Her generous wisdom will leave you equipped to understand what you’re feeling, put those emotions in their proper place, and then use those feelings as positive points of connection with God and other people.
If you join me on this episode of the GoodHard Story Podcast, here’s what you’ll take away:
Step-by-step instructions for engaging your emotions in healthy ways
Reconciling the reality of your fallen-ness with the validity of your feelings
Encouragement to stop fixing and start feeling for your hurting friends
A prayer from Jennie FOR you
If your emotions leave you feeling like too much or too little—or, somehow, BOTH—this episode is for you. Listen wherever you get your podcasts or at hopeheals.com/podcast.
Show Notes:
@jennieallen on Instagram
Jennie's website
IF:Gathering
Gather25
Untangle Your Emotions
Hope Heals Camp
Confessional Communities
Get Out of Your Head
Dan Allender
Adam Young
GoodHard Story Podcast Episode 68 with Debra Fileta
Scriptures referenced in this episode:
Ecclesiastes 3:4
Hebrews 4:15
Ecclesiastes 7:2
John 16:33
John 11:35
Ephesians 4:26-27
Jeremiah 17:9
***
There's so much more to the story: Click here for more messages of hope, free resources, and opportunities to connect with me!
Follow me in Instagram: @hopeheals
Subscribe to The GoodHard Story Podcast!
Apple Podcasts
Spotify
Want a little hope in your inbox?
Sign up for the Hope Note, my monthly digest of only the good stuff, like short reflections from me and a curated roundup of the Internet’s most redemptive content. Subscribe here.
“I’m a Christian because of the shortest verse in the Bible: Jesus wept.”
Something I didn’t wake up to until after my stroke is the fact that joy and sadness can co-exist. In fact, they can do it pretty beautifully if we allow them to.
My friend Scott knows how to be sad. That may sound like a backhanded compliment, but hear me out. I think learning to fully engage our sorrow is one of the healthiest rhythms we can find, especially as followers of Jesus. He was, after all, called the “man of sorrows, acquainted with grief.” So how do we befriend our sadness in the way of Christ?
That’s what I’m covering on this week’s episode of The GoodHard Story Podcast, with the help of Scott Erickson. An artist, writer, and one of the most intriguing thinkers I’ve ever known, Scott has found deep camaraderie with Jesus through his sadness. And he’s inviting you and me to do the same.
If you join me on this episode of the GoodHard Story Podcast, here’s what you’ll take away:
Releasing yourself from being a constant sales pitch for Jesus
Making the shift from getting God’s attention to awakening to where God is at work
What we mean when we talk about hope
A peek into Katherine’s new SOS group
Scott’s hack for facing his fears
Want to invite God into your sadness, but don’t know where to start? This episode is for you.
Show Notes:
@scottthepainter on Instagram
Scott’s Substack Image Pilgrimage
Scott’s story of meeting Sadness at Disneyland
Inside Out
Hope Heals Camp
Justin McRoberts
Honest Advent
Art Against Despair
The GoodHard Story Podcast Episode 76 with Andy Squyres
Backwards Kingdom
Treasures in the Dark Entry 65: A Library of Living Survival Guides
Telling Secrets by Frederick Buechner
Dan Allender
Curt Thompson
Say Yes
Future Dead Artist mug
Scriptures referenced in this episode:
***
There's so much more to the story: Click here for more messages of hope, free resources, and opportunities to connect with me!
Follow me in Instagram: @hopeheals
Subscribe to The GoodHard Story Podcast!
Apple Podcasts
Spotify
Want a little hope in your inbox? Sign up for the Hope Note, my monthly digest of only the good stuff, like short reflections from me and a curated roundup of the Internet’s most redemptive content. Subscribe here.
Did you know that scholars have identified 39 distinct emotions that Jesus felt recorded in the Bible? Is anyone else as encouraged by this as I am?! Our emotions can be a pathway to wholeness and healing if we know what to do with them.
This is just one of MANY gems of wisdom waiting for you on The GoodHard Story Podcast. While guest Debra Fileta is not *technically* my therapist, this episode was so cathartic it might as well have been a paid session!
Debra is an author and licensed professional counselor who is using her life to study the emotional health of Jesus and sharing how we can access that health for ourselves. I left our conversation with a deeper understanding of my own feelings and some simple practices for taking ownership of my emotions.
If you join me on this episode of the GoodHard Story Podcast, here’s what you’ll take away:
A simple formula for intentional healing
Identifying the belief systems underneath our feelings
Why we project our pain onto God
Differentiating between the voice of God and anxiety
How to prevent emotional explosions
Taking control of our thought patterns
The difference between self care and soul care
Desperate to experience emotions in the way God intended? This episode is for you
Listen wherever you get your podcasts or at hopeheals.com/podcast.
Show Notes
All things Debra Fileta!
Debra's website
Talk to Me Podcast
Soul Care by Debra Fileta
Reset by Debra Fileta
Treasures in the Dark by Katherine Wolf
Katherine on Debra’s Podcast
What’s Here Now? by Jeanne Stevens
I Guess I Haven’t Learned That Yet by Shauna Niequest
Scriptures referenced in this episode:
Romans 12:2
John 10:10
John 2:1
Matthew 13:1
***
There's so much more to the story: Click here for more messages of hope, free resources, and opportunities to connect with me!
Follow me in Instagram: @hopeheals
Subscribe to The GoodHard Story Podcast!
Apple Podcasts
Spotify
Want a little hope in your inbox?
Sign up for the Hope Note, my monthly digest of only the good stuff, like short reflections from me and a curated roundup of the Internet’s most redemptive content. Subscribe here.
“Our theories about God and the way he works get confronted with the reality of our lives.”
This is the most refreshing conversation I’ve had in a long time, friends, because I got to talk about some kind of taboo topics without an ounce of the baggage. Joining me this week is Andy Squyres, a brilliantly one-of-a-kind songwriter who never, ever shies away from graciously grappling with the tough stuff. I’ve received so much from his songs and essays, and I received even more from speaking with him about all my favorite things—you know, like suffering, sorrow, and doubt. Normal!
If you join me on this episode of the GoodHard Story Podcast, here’s what you’ll take away:
Looking for a safe place to work through some doubts about who God is and whether he’s good? Then this episode is for you. Listen wherever you get your podcasts or at hopeheals.com/podcast.
Show Notes
Andy Squyres on Instagram: @andysquyres
“Casimir Pulaski Day” by Sufjan Stevens
The Life We’re Looking For by Andy Crouch
“Backwards Kingdom” by Sam McCabe ft. Andy Squyres
“Why It Matters” by Sara Groves
The Cellist of Sarajevo
***
There's so much more to the story: Click here for more messages of hope, free resources, and opportunities to connect with me!
Follow me in Instagram: @hopeheals
Subscribe to The GoodHard Story Podcast!
Apple Podcasts
Spotify
Want a little hope in your inbox? Sign up for the Hope Note, my monthly digest of only the good stuff, like short reflections from me and a curated roundup of the Internet’s most redemptive content. Subscribe here.
The podcast currently has 76 episodes available.
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