There Are Good Things Here

My new book, More Than Christians, comes out on January 14, 2024. The book is dedicated to Katie's parents, Charles and Betsy Hansen, and there's a section in it about my early relationship with "Mr. and Mrs. Hansen." The people we love and who love us have a lot to teach us about the gospel. If this podcast reaches you, consider buying a copy of the book, More Than Christians.

On November 10, 2024, Betsy Hansen passed from this life into the presence of the Savior she loved. Mom Hansen was one of the most influential women in my life, not least because she brought Katie into it! Here are the remarks I shared about her at her funeral.

Today, December 17, 2024, would have been Katie's and my 30th Anniversary. To commemorate this day, I reflect back on some stories from our wedding day. God's goodness and steadfast love have followed me through many years of sorrow and loss. On this day, I remember both: the grief and the goodness.

In this final episode of Season 3, we find Katie Hubbard characteristically wrestling with questions of doubt and faith, death and life, promises of provision and bills to pay. Most of all, we find her true to herself and her God, committed to the hard work of finding good things in the hardest of places. This podcast is probably the final one, so I share some final thoughts.

Katie hated almost everything about cancer treatment, except for the perspective cancer brings. She had a high tolerance for pain but a low tolerance for medication. Constant check-ups and scans left her feeling exposed and anxious. The surgeries, scars and hair loss felt like an assault on her womanhood. Yet, she could write without hesitation to the Lord, “I hate [my] anxiety and the uncertainty I live with, but I do love the perspective that comes with having cancer. Sometimes, I think everyone should have cancer.”

Katie Hubbard closes out 2013 with a long journal entry on everything she had done since mid-November of that year. (She didn’t journal a lot during that time because her journal went missing for a month.) It’s amazing to consider all she did after finishing chemo, radiation, and reconstructive surgery. It would have been a full life for a person in perfect health. Going into 2014, she lists out lessons learned from the previous year:

“What Have I Learned:

God is trustworthy.

He is the same yesterday, today, and tomorrow.

I can turn towards Him or away from Him in trials.

God will provide.

God will provide.”

Lest anyone think I (Norman Hubbard) edit Katie’s journals heavily when I read them on air, let this podcast stand as testimony. In early December 2013, you get pure Katie Hubbard, the quintessential Auburn Tigers football fan. (Really, the "kick 6" game might be one of the greatest moments in sports!) You also see another example of the way Katie wrote out Scripture in her journal as a means of meditating on what God was saying to her. It’s an inspiring model many of us could profitably adopt.

In this episode, Katie Hubbard talks about reconstructive surgery with her followers on Caring Bridge. It may be the only time you hear her publicly threaten to beat you with a baseball bat. And she reflects on a common theme in her journals: having a lot of stuff doesn’t make you grateful.

In this episode, Katie reflects on the challenges and joys of parenting four kids at very different stages of life, losing a friend to cancer, and meditating on Scripture.

In the previous podcast, we found Katie Hubbard struggling with the idea that her life, taken by cancer, might be dispensable. Here, we find her breakthrough as she writes out, Romans 8:38: “For I am persuaded that … death … shall not be able to separate us from the love of God.” She goes on to write of herself, “Katie Hubbard, beloved child of God. If you are loved, you are known, not forgotten. Not wasted. Not dispensable. If I am loved, the You are not holding out on me, withholding from me.”