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:

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!

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⁠⁠Hope Heals⁠⁠

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⁠⁠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…

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

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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!

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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:

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:

***

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!

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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:

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:

***

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!

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“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:

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

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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.

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:

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

Instagram

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!

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⁠⁠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

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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.

Before the GoodHard Story Podcast takes a short summer break, Katherine is recapping her favorite moments from Season 3. She’s distilling over 30 hours of conversations and reflections into a potent 20-minute dose of hope!

What you’ll take away from this conversation…

As we prepare for the next season of the podcast, we need to hear what YOU want to hear! Let us know what hurt you’re holding today so that we can start some helpful, healing conversations between Katherine and her most trusted teachers.

If you want to help us create future episodes, email us at [email protected] or DM us on Instagram (@hopeheals) with questions you’d like answered or topics you want covered.

Show Notes:

Donate to Hope Heals: hopeheals.com/give

Favorite Season 3 Moments:

Episode 37: Ask Amy Julia

Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/episode-37-ask-amy-julia

Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/episode/3ueGdkR3BPASl10PY319Gx?si=e1356478bdc240f7

“Experiencing disability or being in proximity to disability is a way to embrace our own humanity. It can also call us into love, care, and mutual receiving.”

———

Episode 39: Putting It Into Practice with Caroline Young

Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/episode-39-putting-it-into-practice-with-caroline-young

Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/episode/39AXj8Bk71LjcUbHAHQpnH?si=0625bc43b2a74d63

“Find the people without the people and make them your people.”

———

Episode 46: “Strong Like Water”: Designed for Emotional Agility with Aundi Kolber

Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/episode-46-strong-like-water-designed-for-emotional

Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/episode/0EN8lXrxbRjGXNY7WyFWqg?si=d3474bb03cf94a3c

“When Jesus promised to give us ‘life to the full,’ he was giving us permission to embrace the full spectrum of human emotion. We are being invited into experiencing deep feeling and emotional flexibility as a strength, not a liability.”

———

Episode 55: Hard-Fought Contentment: Integrating Our Losses into Wholeness with Jerry Sittser

Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/epiode-55-hard-fought-contentment-integrating-our-losses

Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/episode/6fzhl7BoYlQ0S2K4IKvEEe?si=1bcf5b1d507c4a12

“Grief does not have to diminish us. Grief can become integrated into healthier, more whole versions of ourselves.”

“Our responses to loss can define us, rather than the loss itself defining us.”

“God, spare me from a perfect life.”

———

Episode 60: My Prayer for YOU: Borrow This Benediction for the Good/Hard Life

Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/episode-60-my-prayer-for-you-borrow-this-benediction

Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/episode/4vJvuFKDPa2a765SojnlQS?si=77c38e6cd34c4320

“I’m not responsible for what has happened to me, but I am responsible for what I do with it.”

———

Episode 63: Wonderful/Terrible: Cultivating a Gritty Faith Instead of a Pretty Faith with Kay Warren

Apple Podcasts:

https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/episode-63-wonderful-terrible-cultivating-a-gritty

Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/episode/2Iq8Y3prH2QQMfIoezsRIX?si=62242adb5e3b4a0d

“We are never more like Christ than when we are sitting with people in their suffering.”

Scriptures referenced in this episode:

Romans 8:32

2 Corinthians 1:3-5

Romans 15:13

***

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Get to know us:

⁠⁠Hope Heals⁠⁠: https://hopeheals.com/

⁠⁠Hope Heals Camp⁠⁠: https://hopeheals.com/camp

⁠⁠Mend Coffee⁠⁠: https://www.mendcoffee.org/

Instagram⁠: https://www.instagram.com/hopeheals/

Have you ever spent a thousand hours studying something? Other than the back of your own eyelids, that is.

Today, Katherine is joined by her friend Dr. Joel Muddamalle, who recently spent one thousand hours studying everything the Bible has to say about humility. He’s sharing everything he learned with us! What he has to say might surprise you, and it’s certain to convict you.

If you sense you might be harboring hidden pride and finally feel ready to recover your God-designed humility, this episode is for you.

What you’ll take away from this conversation…

Why humility is the key to developing resilience against humiliation

How to invite God to re-order your ambitions

Making the switch from resenting your limitations to resting in them instead

All things Joel Muddamalle: https://linktr.ee/muddamalle

The Hidden Peace: Finding True Security, Strength, and Confidence Through Humility by Joel Muddamalle: https://a.co/d/bYj1ypQ

Hope Heals Camp: https://hopeheals.com/camp

Proverbs 31 Ministries: https://proverbs31.org/

“These Are The Days” by Cory Asbury: https://g.co/kgs/fRaQBGz

Scriptures referenced in this episode:

Genesis 1, 2, and 3

Matthew 11:28-29

Philippians 2:8-9

***

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Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/good-hard-story-podcast/id1496882479

Spotify:https://open.spotify.com/show/0OYz6G9Q2tNNVOX9YSdmFb?si=043bd6b10a664beb

Want a little hope in your inbox?

⁠⁠Sign up for the Hope Note⁠⁠, our twice-a-month digest of only the good stuff, like reflections from Katherine and a curated digest of the Internet’s most redemptive content: https://hopeheals.com/hopenote

Get to know us:

⁠⁠Hope Heals⁠⁠: https://hopeheals.com/

⁠⁠Hope Heals Camp⁠⁠: https://hopeheals.com/camp

⁠⁠Mend Coffee⁠⁠: https://www.mendcoffee.org/

Instagram⁠: https://www.instagram.com/hopeheals/