When a wound from grief is just barely healing, it can be devastating when another wave of loss rolls in, exposing your heart all over again. In this episode, Rich and Melissa continue sharing their story in marriage, the mission field, and their pursuit of building a family.

While this couple could never imagine being able to navigate an additional traumatic loss, they quickly realized that their vulnerability was key to restarting the healing process. You'll also hear how God showed them how to grieve together this time and embrace the support of their community.

In this episode you'll learn:

• How a beautiful gift and surprise turned into another loss so quickly
• The ways the enemy attempted to capitalize on lies and trauma
• Why wrestling with God in your grief is key to survival
• Practical wisdom for how to respond when you have friends who are walking through miscarriage or the loss of a child

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Having hope in God's plans for our lives can fuel us in such beautiful ways. And yet, sometimes without reason, we come face to face with a "not-yet" - or sometimes worse, a "no" for the things our hearts long for most. Join me in this conversation with my friends Rich and Melissa who met in college, married, and became missionaries soon after. As their ministry developed, so did their desire to start a family. After one beautiful healthy son came a series of complications, losses, confusion, and blocked paths. Listen to discover what questions they asked and what hard and beautiful truths they discovered about themselves, God, and each other throughout this season. Join us next week as they continue sharing how this journey unfolded.

In this episode you'll learn:

• How many challenges surfaced in life and ministry when Rich and Melissa became pregnant
• Why it was so hard to accept God wouldn't say yes to a dream of a full house of children
• How grief overwhelmed them through multiple fronts in a single week
• What wise advice Rich and Melissa received when doors they didn't anticipate would close were indeed shut for them
• How challenging it was to pursue fertility treatments overseas

It's HERE! Grab your copy of Lifted From Shame

• Pre-order your eBook or print book on Amazon here.
• Print and eBook are available now through the publisher here.

One of the biggest challenges with grief is that we are never really done with it. Our pain can pop up in so many unexpected ways, even years into our healing journey. So then the question becomes: how do we learn to live with grief? In this episode, Angie Warren returns to share more about the process of grief, the role of the body and the brain in processing trauma, and perhaps most importantly -why God is not disappointed that you are still working through your grief.

In this episode you'll learn:

• How God has designed us with a need for safety
• Why we need to find ways to make our grief concrete (with examples)
• How the process "casting your cares on Jesus" can be re-examined in grief
• What our brains do to protect us from experiencing trauma again
• The ways grief can guide us into deeper purpose and community

It's HERE! Grab your copy of Lifted From Shame

• Pre-order your eBook or print book on Amazon here.
• Print and eBook are available now through the publisher here.

Grief is a universal language and part of the human experience, and yet there is so much about the grieving process that is so easily misunderstood. In this episode, I am joined by Angie Warren, a Licensed Social Worker who meets with children, teens, and adults, helping them process their grief and loss.

Angie will share why grief is not linear and how it is as unique as the individual experiencing the grief. Additionally, we dive into how the body can hold onto grief and why it's important to learn how to spot the physical signs of grief. Angie also offers helpful distinctions between what grief can look like at different developmental levels. Be sure to subscribe so you can catch the next episode where she shares tools for managing grief and the gifts that God offers us as we work through grief.

In this episode you'll learn:

• Why we need to recognize grief
• The importance of learning to recognize signs of grieving in our physical bodies
• Why grief can be as unique as the individual
• Why the 5 Stages of Grief shouldn't be used as a formula
• How grief looks different in a child vs. an adult

Resources Mentioned:

"The Body Keeps the Score: Brain, Mind, and Body in the Healing of Trauma" by Bessel van der Kolk, M.D.

Five Stages of Grief–Elisabeth Kubler Ross Connect with Angie Warren

It's HERE! Grab your copy of Lifted From Shame

• Pre-order your eBook or print book on Amazon here.
• Print and eBook are available now through the publisher here.

When we find ourselves walking through a season of grief or loss, unresolved hurts from the past can surface, making us vulnerable in ways that are hard to anticipate. In this second episode with Mary, she shares the heartbreaking story she lived through when she opened her heart up to a relationship again. Listen to how she had to navigate multiple acts of betrayal and how God showed Mary how to rebuild her life, step by step, reaching as far back as her childhood.

In this episode you'll learn:

• How Mary was swept off her feet by a man that pretended to care for her
• The ways Mary began to discover her second husband's hidden agenda
• How Mary began to trust God to be her Advocate who would bring her justice
• The gift of friendship Mary found in someone walking just a season ahead of her on a similar journey
• Why God longs for us to name our hurts to Him and in trusted community

It's HERE! Grab your copy of Lifted From Shame

• Pre-order your eBook or print book on Amazon here.
• Print and eBook are available now through the publisher here.

If you have become someone who is really well-versed in performing, many times it's because early on, we learned to do it as a means of survival. It's one way we can control the chaos-or at least be sure we don't add to it.

In this episode, my guest Mary is sharing how maintaining an image of perfection in childhood was a practice that followed her into marriage and parenting. And as hard as she tried, for many years, she was not able to break the cycles of shame that broke her. Learn how an unexpected hardship taught her to release her need to appear put together and embrace an ability to love without conditions.

In this episode you'll learn:

• The first time Mary can remember experiencing shame
• How Mary became the referee in her parents' marriage at a young age
• A child's experience of the process of escaping an abuser
• Why she still felt the need to control when she married a healthy man
• Why even 180 degrees from sick is still sick

It's HERE! Grab your copy of Lifted From Shame

• Pre-order your eBook or print book on Amazon here.
• Print and eBook are available now through the publisher here.

Healing rarely happens at the rate we would wish it would. Yet it doesn't take long to realize just how different we are. We can see how much God has been at work. In the episode, EJay and Lori will continue to share more about the lies that God exposed in their lives. They will unpack what allowed them to rest and be free of a compulsive need to try to win the favor of each other - and God.

In this episode you'll learn:

• How EJay was able to start shifting from striving to believing the work Christ had already done on his behalf
• Why it was so easy for EJay and Lori to trigger one another in their pain
• Key questions to ask yourself if you're feeling stuck in the healing process
• How Lori and Ejay introduced authenticity in their relationships with their kids even as they became adults
• What it's been like to witness their kids learn to forgive and reconcile with one another

It's HERE! Grab your copy of Lifted From Shame

• Pre-order your eBook or print book on Amazon here.
• Print and eBook are available now through the publisher here.

One of the most common traps for people who've been part of the church for many years is believing that saying and doing all the right things will make God and others inclined to love us more. This theology can wreak havoc on our relationship with God and others because there is so little room for grace and forgiveness.

In this episode, I'm joined by EJay and Lori, an incredible couple who invested years of life on the mission field in part because they thought it was such a highly esteemed calling. What they didn't expect was for God to expose their need to examine old wounds, restore a fragile marriage, and realize that there was nothing they could do to make God love them more.

In this episode you'll learn:

• How easy it is to hide behind the guise of ministry
• Why EJay felt so vulnerable in the challenges of language learning
• The difference between knowing and living the truth of your identity
• How Lori released her need to judge EJay so often
• The role and impact of healthy community on their healing process

It's HERE! Grab your copy of Lifted From Shame

• Pre-order your eBook or print book on Amazon here.
• Print and eBook are available now through the publisher here.

The Gospel may be the most familiar element of your faith, but have you ever stopped to consider: what kind of Gospel have I heard? As we continue this conversation on the transforming power of the Gospel, Caleb is asking us to think about what expectations or perhaps traditions have we added to the Gospel. Unpacking this concept may give us clues as to why it's harder to trust God in the middle of our pain.

The truth is that we were always designed to live connected to God. In our flesh, we long to make a name for ourselves and add to the work of the Gospel. But there's nothing left to accomplish-it is finished. So come rest in this truth as Caleb and I as we dive into a conversation about the beauty of God's gift to us on the cross.

In this episode you'll learn:

• Why it can be challenging to trust God without examining your view of the Gospel
• Why it's important to never become too common or simple for us
• Questions you can ask God when your heart and pain are exposed
• How it's easy to miss the Gospel's gift in a culture consumed with establishing a unique identity
• How a renewed look at the Gospel can impact how we approach Christmas this year

  It's HERE! Grab your copy of Lifted From Shame

  • Pre-order your eBook or print book on Amazon here.
  • Print and eBook are available now through the publisher here.

As life-changing as the Gospel is when we first receive it, it can be really common for us to set it down in the middle of life's chaos or believe that it will only be completely fulfilled after death. But the beauty is that God's work on the cross means it is relevant to everything we're going through right now.

In this episode, I'm joined by young adult pastor and good friend, Caleb Smith. He shares the gentle ways God has pursued him with the redeeming power of the Gospel in the middle of some very painful seasons of life. His understanding of grace reveals why he is able to trust God when it seems impossible.

In this episode you'll learn:

• How God's pursuit of Caleb impacted him most
• How grace made his heart tender enough to trust in the middle of his parent's divorce
• Why having the courage to forgive his family was such a miracle
• The ways Caleb is making sense of the work of the Gospel in his day-to-day life
• Why we need to get in touch with how desperate we are for the Good News

Grab your copy of Lifted From Shame

• Pre-order your eBook or print book on Amazon here.
• Print and eBook are available now through the publisher here.