In Christ Alone My Hope Is Found - Episode Description
In Christ Alone My Hope Is Found - Transcript
0:00:00 – Announcer
We go together like Peas and Carrots. The Peas and Carrots Podcast, sharing life from our piece of the vegetable patch, Brian and Kayla Sanders.
0:00:11 – Brian
Welcome to the Peas and Carrots Podcast. Hello, I’m Brian, I’m Kayla, good to have you along this week. Welcome to episode 2.
0:00:22 – Kayla
We’ll be talking again with Adam and Trisha. Yeah, this is part two of our conversation with the Reads. They have shared with all of us how they navigate a chronic illness and how they glorify Christ and give all of us hope in what they share in that. So we will get to that in just a minute. We’re going to keep our life updates really short this week because this is a powerful segment and the spotlight is on Adam and Trisha, so we don’t want to say a whole lot. We are in week two fundraising, fundraising.
0:00:58 – Brian
I got a new Lincoln book. Uh-huh, why did your facial expression change?
0:01:04 – Kayla
Is anybody surprised by that? I just wanted to share that.
0:01:07 – Brian
There are people out there who are very excited about that.
0:01:11 – Kayla
Okay, I’ve had lots of coffee over the last few days, so I’m trying not to talk super fast because I’m highly caffeinated and kind of my ears are buzzing a little bit.
0:01:26 – Brian
When we first got married, for the first maybe five or ten years of our marriage. Like if you ate chocolate, I’m having really trouble stuttering. If you ate chocolate, after like two or three, you’d be up till like midnight.
0:01:38 – Kayla
Oh yeah, I was party animal, yeah, so those days are behind you Not anymore. I can’t do coffee after like 2 pm, so yeah, but anyway, we will get back to our life updates, but, as we said, today’s focus. We hope that you enjoy part two of our conversation with Adam and Trisha.
0:01:59 – Brian
I want to ask Trisha this how have you seen the grace of God in the last 13 years with all these diagnoses?
0:02:08 – Trisha
You know, I think one thing that we learned early on I think even in our college years, was that we were encouraged just to make a works of God when you see God working. Just as the Israelites built the altars and the stones to remember what God had done, we’re called to remember what God has done for us. So actually even just last night we were talking with our kids and just remembering all the things that God has done in the past. So when things seem hard and there’s like I don’t know how this is going to turn out, we remember and we think back, and so there were just a lot of things. There was a reminder last night that one of the kiddos was reminding things that we didn’t even remember. So there was an era of our life just after a really hard surgery and someone would leave a gift card in our mailbox every Sunday night for a while.
And we would just get a text and they would say hey, go check your mailbox.
0:03:03 – Adam
We didn’t know who it was from, like a third party would say, hey, go check your mailbox.
0:03:05 – Trisha
We didn’t know who it was from. We didn’t like a third party would say, hey, go check your mailbox, something’s in there. So that was something that we made sure as a family, just remembering. Okay, like this was God provided again and he has been faithful. One time we came home and someone actually was right before Christmas.
0:03:20 – Adam
That was amazing.
0:03:21 – Trisha
And someone had decorated our yard like with decorations.
0:03:26 – Adam
For me that wasn’t a big deal, but for the kids like that’s one of the ones they remember Like hey, mom, do you remember that?
0:03:32 – Trisha
time, Like his Adam, had always done decorations and that Christmas that wasn’t going to happen. And so they came home and they’re like mom, there’s like the Christmas decoration.
0:03:40 – Adam
It looked better than they said. It’s like this is the best Christmas lights we’ve ever had.
0:03:44 – Trisha
Yeah, it might have been better than ours. Yeah, we couldn’t even compete, it’s true.
0:03:49 – Adam
So things like that and then you turn the corner and you pull in and like that moment for your kids. You know, when you know that you are completely helpless to make that happen and it’s not a need.
0:04:00 – Kayla
Yeah.
0:04:00 – Adam
But it’s something that reached their hearts.
0:04:02 – Trisha
But it’s something that reached their hearts. We call that tiny mercies.
0:04:04 – Adam
Yeah, for sure, just to see the amount of love that that showed to them. Not everything’s monetary.
0:04:10 – Trisha
Yeah, and that’s what one of the things they said specifically. They’re like mom, it’s not always Now granted, the financial has been helpful in times, but it’s also been just key thing for our family is doxology, remembering and thinking like, okay, this is hard, but God’s been faithful in the past and he will give us grace for whatever the future is. So, yeah, I think those are the moments and I think that’s helped us to then keep our focus on Christ and not on our situation for sure.
0:04:40 – Brian
What Ms. Kayla just said. We call this tiny mercies and we have faced stuff, but it’s nothing like what you faced, Adam. But I have a folder on my iPhone in the Notes app and it’s called Tiny Mercies Because I tend to look at all the bad stuff that’s happening. In those days I’m just stressed out with all the bad stuff. I will force myself to look at other places and see what God’s doing and I will start writing those things down to remind me that he’s still active, he’s still moving, he’s still doing good things. It may not just be in this one area where I’m struggling right now, but he’s doing all this other stuff over here, so that sounds like that, yeah for sure.
0:05:22 – Trisha
Spiritual amnesia right, we forget, we’re so forgetful.
0:05:32 – Adam
And so then we have to direct our minds to think on truth. Like we had one former student of mine who graduated when I taught high school and it had been years, and like she contacted us and it was right before Christmas after a major surgery, and she’s like, hey, can I come get your kids Christmas presents and wrap them all for you and bring them back? And I don’t. That was just like a huge.
0:05:49 – Trisha
And, for the record, I hate Chris. I mean I sound like a Scrooge, but that’s one of the things. I do not enjoy wrapping presents?
0:05:56 – Adam
but regardless, I like a lot of other things.
0:05:58 – Trisha
It was still just like this but it was a huge help for me. Like one thing I could take off my plate.
0:06:03 – Adam
And yeah, it was just like a very simple, like super practical. I mean it probably took her several hours to, you know, come pick everything up and then get wrapping paper and wrap them and then bring them all back. But it was just one of those little things that you’re like, I really saw God in that moment and it was one of those things like we will, we’ll never forget. And our kids certainly won’t either, just because the amount of love that showed God shows up in really neat ways. You just never expect.
0:06:31 – Kayla
From a practical standpoint, have either or both of you had to get comfortable with letting other people do things for you?
0:06:40 – Trisha
I think I know the answer to this. It’s funny we did talk about this last night. I am probably not as good as I probably should be about it. There are there’s definitely people that are close and dear that I know and I trust them and I’ll say, yeah, like that would be huge, probably could get better. I think that’s one of the things maybe I don’t do as well.
0:07:01 – Adam
Yeah yeah, I think that it’s a tough thing. I think she’d say we’ve gotten better at it, but I’m still not. I mean, I still fight people helping me. But she’ll tell you, like when we were first married, like I’ve changed a lot, like I have changed so much. I was the person that if she wants something done, I’ll get it done, but I’ll run over everybody in the process of getting it done.
And so me basically Okay, I wasn’t going to say I was Brian.
You said you were. You said it Okay, but I would like I mean I would really hurt people in the process just cause I was like this is the way it is, like we’re going to get it done. And through the years, like God’s just kind of tore that from me and helping me see people like just cause people like just because I have a physical name doesn’t mean I’m special, like I could be sitting next to someone who is perfectly healthy but is going through something mentally or emotionally or relationally that is just as painful in different ways. And so trying to understand people better and relate to them has really been a long process. And so I think like that drive is still in me to like I’m just going to get it done, and so I think like that drive is still in me to like I’m just going to get it done, and so I still think I’m probably not very good at accepting help. Brian makes me accept help. Sometimes he’s like, hey, David’s going to help you do this.
0:08:16 – Brian
Okay.
0:08:17 – Adam
All right yeah.
0:08:18 – Brian
How have you seen God work in your life, Adam?
0:08:21 – Adam
A whole myriad of ways I am very different than I was. We joke sometimes not in the pushing people over, but we have kind of changed personalities.
0:08:29 – Trisha
For sure. Yeah, I’m definitely more of like, okay, let’s get it done, move to the next thing agenda and I’m more of the laid back.
0:08:40 – Adam
Still want to get stuff done but like let’s take a nap. I take naps at 10. You better-.
0:08:43 – Brian
Well, here we go.
0:08:44 – Adam
Aggravate. Three o’clock no, and then 4.30 just to be safe 4.30 just to be safe.
0:08:51 – Kayla
And.
0:08:51 – Adam
I schedule.
0:08:53 – Trisha
Meetings with Brian and you work in between right.
0:08:55 – Adam
Depending on how my day with Brian goes. Crisis nap, yeah, that’s what my. If you text me and I’m having a crisis nap, it’s because something went awry with Brian.
0:09:05 – Kayla
I’m going to have to start weaving in crisis nap.
0:09:08 – Adam
No we’re not. No, we are not. Thank you, Adam.
0:09:12 – Kayla
Yes, absolutely.
0:09:14 – Brian
So let me we’ll get to the hilarity here in a minute. Back to this. How have you seen God’s grace in your life? Because you’ve seen a lot of pain.
0:09:24 – Adam
Really, I would just say, through his word really is how God has really changed me, and I’ve shared with you some of it before. There’s a couple of passages that really stick out in my mind that I’ve just run to over and over again. Years ago I was at Lifeway and I was there for something else, but I’m like I’m always the clearance rack shopper, so like if there’s a clearance rack.
I don’t care what store I’m at, I’m going to go see it. Thank you, Kayla Appreciate that, and Brian at me like I’m crazy. But it’s okay, We’ll talk about that later. So after my crisis but yeah.
So like I was at Lifeway when they were still around and I went to the clearance rack and they had this like bookend sort of thing and it had Psalm 138 on it, which says the Lord will accomplish his purpose for me, and I bought two of them because I just liked it. I was like that is very meaningful to me. I didn’t really know at the time how meaningful it would become because things just progressively got worse, but it’s still at our house and it’s still up after, oh goodness, 15 plus years probably. And that is just one verse that the Lord has really used in my life, because I can’t tell you how many times I’ve gotten a new diagnosis or felt like I couldn’t accomplish the things I was given to do, or people meaning well have said things that have hurt, or people meaning well, they have good intentions and just say something and you’re like people go stupid.
Yeah, but they have good intentions, they just don’t know how to respond to the situation.
0:10:56 – Brian
I think a lot of higher opinion of people than I do.
0:10:58 – Adam
but go ahead, I just think people in general like when they enter hard situations, just if they’ve never been there. They don’t know what to say or do and so they say something and it just doesn’t always come out right. But all these different situations I’ve felt that many times like I am useless now, like my goals in life, the things I studied to become what I was working on, what I was pursuing, like we said, like we’re on plan I don’t know whatever. Now, if there was more than 26 letters in the alphabet, we’d be there.
And yet I’ve come back to this verse and said no, like God said he’s going to accomplish his purpose for me, what he designed before, what he. You know, he planned out all of my days Psalm 139, 13, 14,. Like when he planned all that out, this was all part of his plan. Like this was never a mistake that happened that somehow God was blindsided by this and now my life is a mess. No, this was all part of what he sought to do, and so just finding that hope in scripture that God’s not done with me. I can remember driving down this road right here when I was in engineering, and the white truck which we affectionately called reepa. Cheap after uh C.S. Lewis cs Narnia series.
My kids helped me name it. I can’t believe that came up on this podcast I’m so proud right now I was driving down the road and I was literally in tears because I was like I just don’t know if I’m useful anymore. Like I’ve got so much going on with my health and my body. Like, can I work, Can I accomplish things? Can I?
be, helpful to the world in general, like and you know the song came on that like God’s not done with you yet, which is an echo of the same verse Like he’s going to accomplish his purpose for me and that gave me huge hope during that time and I just remember, like, right on this road out here is having that experience.
So that’s one verse that’s been a huge encouragement to me. The other one that really happened this last year was John nine, where Christ heals the man that was born blind. And it kind of seems like a weird passage to go to because, like oh, christ healed the man that was born blind. And it kind of seems like a weird passage to go to because, like oh, christ healed the man that was born blind. He says well, you were born for the purpose of me healing you. Like, you know, like God’s purpose is being accomplished, you’re healed.
Well, I had to wrestle with that a lot because I was like, well, he was born blind so that he could be healed and God’s glory was seen in that and seen in him. But I was born healthy, seemingly, although my main disease is the actual DNA defect. It just didn’t manifest itself till later. And yet now I’m sick, like now I’m in a state of unhealth constantly, but yet I’m not healed. And this guy was healed. So, like, how does that play out? Because God’s glory was seen in the healing. But I had to step back and, just you know, look at scripture, look at life and realize like the normative in life is not miracles. We love miracles and we love to see them happen, and God can use all sorts of means to make those happen, but we wouldn’t call them miracles if it was normal.
0:14:07 – Kayla
Yeah.
0:14:07 – Adam
Right, like we are amazed at seeing miracles because they are abnormal. And there’s a reason that there’s a hospital in every city. It’s because pain and hurt are normative, like that is the normal. So recognizing that like, okay, you know, healing may never come in this world in this world, yeah, yeah, it may never be part of my experience here yeah.
And I need to stop simply chasing after freedom from pain because that’s where I was for a long time. I just want to be free from this, whether that’s through doctor’s care or whatever. Like I just don’t want this anymore To recognizing okay, I live in a broken world and I should expect brokenness. Like that should be part of how I live is expecting things to be broken in a broken world. And because I can stop chasing freedom from that, I can find freedom and seeing eternity as a hope and a healing that we will have one day and I can look forward to that time. And that was a huge perspective change for me as I wrestled through John 9. So we’ve joked a lot because people will come up and say I’m praying for you and I love that right.
0:15:25 – Trisha
Obviously, we love people praying for us.
0:15:30 – Adam
We’ve had some. It hasn’t been recently at all, but we’ve had some people in the past that would come up every week and they’d be like are you healed?
0:15:36 – Trisha
Is it all better? Are you all better now?
0:15:40 – Adam
And you’re like well, it’s a DNA defect. So unless God changed my DNA, I’m still the same way, and God certainly has the power to change my DNA. Like it’s not beyond him in the least. I mean, Paul had a thorn in his side and he sought the Lord three times for it to be removed, and then it sounds like he stopped and he trusted the Lord with what he was given. So when these people would come, we’d kind of like be like no, we’re not healed yet, you know, but just pray instead rather than pray for.
If you want to pray for healing, keep praying for it. I don’t have a problem with you praying for it. But what I need you to pray for because what’s normative is brokenness I need you to pray that I would live out, live well, what I’ve been given, because that’s a whole lot harder. Like if I was healed, it’d be easy for me just to go back to rely on myself. It would be so easy because that’s how I lived and I would probably describe the early part of our marriage really was just self-reliant, and I hope that that’s changed. And if I was to be healed, I think I would just go back to revert back to that and having problems forces me to rely on someone other than myself because I can’t fix them, and God’s there for that, obviously.
0:16:51 – Brian
I want to ask you both a question, and then I want to say a few things, and Miss Kayla may want to say a few things To the person. Who. To say a few things? To the person who’s listening, to the couple out there who’s listening? And they’ve been given a horrible diagnosis and life will never be the same. I’ll start with Trisha Ladies. First, what would you say to them, as the spouse of somebody who’s been walking this road?
0:17:14 – Kayla
You stole my question.
0:17:17 – Trisha
But I’ll let you.
0:17:18 – Brian
I appreciate that, darling.
0:17:25 – Trisha
Yeah, I think one thing I have found more recently that we’ve discussed is just making sure that you take time to grieve. I think that’s a vital thing, that maybe we’re not comfortable with those feelings and having someone to talk to and not internalize it by yourself, but discussing those, working through those issues, taking time to not just be like, okay, this is great, no, like taking time to process, is something that our society struggles to process well. And then the second thing is, I think, just understanding that God is still in charge, like he is still in control, and he has a plan, and it’s not necessarily our plan. I think each time we’ve gone through seasons, the Lord has definitely given passages of scripture that I cling to, and right now even I think it applies to that question is Romans 8 in verse 26. It specifically talks about that.
The spirit also joins to help us in our weakness because we do not know what to pray for, as we should. But the spirit himself intercedes for us with unspoken groanings, and I’m just thankful that when we don’t have the answers and we may not even know what to pray, that the spirit is with us and he is enough and that kind of helps them realize, okay, I can’t even go to the Lord with prayer because I don’t even have the words that disappointment and that loss can also be a comfort of like, okay, I don’t have to have the words and the spirit is enough. So, yeah, I think those are the things that have been that passage, and just meditating on that and seeing the power of Christ through that has been such an encouragement.
0:18:57 – Adam
Mr. Read. Well, I think the first thing Trisha said is they’re all great. The one first thing she said it’s just taking time to grieve over things. I don’t think our society is good at that. I don’t think we as Christians have a good theology of pain in general and that’s one thing that there’s several good books out there. There’s just the idea of living in pain or having like some reason. We think that as believers, life shouldn’t be hard or there’s just not a box for ongoing pain, like. There’s this idea of like there’s always you’re in the valley, but there’s going to be a mountain top.
0:19:33 – Trisha
It’s going to get better. Life is going to get better.
0:19:35 – Adam
It’s going to get better and it’s just not always that way, Like there are some people who are in valleys and they’re always going to be in a valley situation and as believers it’s just in our current society we don’t have a big box for that and I think so that’s just one thing to recognize as a spouse.
My wife has done great with this. But I think just taking the time to understand what your spouse is going through If I list out my diagnosed medical conditions single space, 12 point font, like it’s over a page long, so like there’s all sorts of stuff going on and taking time to understand what those things do to affect you, like how they affect your daily life, is super important. And she’s done well at just trying to learn what it is and not just being like oh yeah, you got diagnosed with whatever and just kind of having a half knowledge of it where it doesn’t show the level of care and concern that you would if you actually understood what someone was going through. That’s just a really practical thing to do is just take the time to understand so that you can relate and help them the best you can.
0:20:45 – Trisha
And I think the one thing I would add, I think one thing we have found and we have met with people and just understanding that suffering could be physical, it could be mental, it could be even just hard family situations, and so I think that there is a lot of suffering and people struggle maybe even to communicate or tell, because they think that they have to have it all together, and so one thing we’ve tried to encourage is just that brokenness is a part of the world and we need to give people space for that.
0:21:17 – Adam
Yeah, I think if we were all just in general and myself included here but if we were all just in general, more open about the brokenness we have, there’d be a whole lot more uh balm of Christ to go around and be, soothing, as opposed to just trying to keep it inside and keep that veneer of everything’s okay, how are you?
I’m fine, you know, yeah, going on. There’s just a lot. There’s hurt everywhere you look and just trying to be open about that. It’s tough, it’s not an easy thing, but trying to push against that.
0:21:50 – Brian
So I just want to say this Trisha, thank you for allowing him to be my friend, and I mean that he has made my life richer and better because he’s in it. So thank you, Trisha, for that. And, Adam, I want to thank you for serving the ministry and for being an amazing friend to me. I’ll just tell you I don’t enter a room unless Adam usually tells me why I’m going into the room. That’s one of his, that’s what he does for me, and every day it’s like B, you have this and there’s where you’ll be and this is what you’ll be doing, that kind of stuff. So thank you, and let me say this too you know, as a, a leader, I have to make hard decisions and there’s a lot of stress. This guy will call me up, tell me the dumbest joke and then just hang up and I get to hear them every day and they are fantastic.
I mean he’ll just call up, he’ll just call up and say these dumb things and just hang up.
0:22:51 – Kayla
Won’t even say bye, just click so he can pretend they’re like driving him crazy. But then I get a phone call and I get the joke.
0:22:59 – Adam
I won’t have to take as many crisis naps now. And then there’s that our kids might appreciate that you hear and maybe you give a better feedback because I don’t think that he gets the great, you know our teenage daughters don’t laugh as much at the dumb jokes, so you might relieve some of that from them. You’re taking the pressure off.
0:23:17 – Brian
There you go. I want to say this finally to both of you you help us put our pain into a proper perspective. You help us put what we’re going through into a proper perspective. And, Trisha, you said something pretty profound. You said that if he’s the God of eternity, then he’s the God of today. If he can handle eternity, he can handle this, and there’s things that we’re walking through right now, that kind of stuff, and that’s helped me because, well, if he can handle my eternity, he can handle this. Now, I’d rather it be pain free, for sure, right, yeah, you know what I’m saying. I’d like to have bubble gum and Willy Wonka and candy and everything else. Ice cream, ice cream, ice cream. That would be nice Peanuts. Here we go. He’s trying to kill me.
0:24:00 – Kayla
This is what he does to me.
0:24:02 – Brian
So thank you for that reminder that he is big enough to handle our stuff. And, Adam Read, I’ll tell you this publicly and I have told you this privately I’m a better man because you’re in my life and as long as I have a job, you have a job and I love you and I’m thankful for you.
0:24:25 – Adam
Very kind. I love you both and just privileged to be your friends and to know you guys, and you are a blessing to me.
0:24:30 – Trisha
Yeah, and thank you for giving us a chance to share our story. It’s a privilege as well.
0:24:36 – Adam
I found this one truth super encouraging. It’s just a quote by C.S. Lewis, but as we think about the pain we have here and placing our hope somewhere else than in relief from stuff, now, C.S. Lewis said if we find within ourselves a desire that nothing in this world can satisfy, the most probable explanation is that we were made for another world, and that’s just been a huge help to me in perspective.
0:25:02 – Kayla
That exact quote was shared at our women’s retreat this last weekend. So I just want you both to know that when you walk into a space, you may not feel it, but Jesus is all over you and I see it in you, I see it in your kids. Yes, I thank you for taking time today to share him, because that’s what you did. You could have sat here for the last however many minutes and lamented all the 43.22. Here you go.
0:25:41 – Adam
Oh, it’s nap time.
0:25:42 – Kayla
I was going to say he’s going to need two crisis naps this afternoon, but I just want you to know that I believe with everything in me that God is going to use your suffering to change someone else, because they’re going to be reminded that he is the God of all of it, and so thank you. I know it’s hard to talk about suffering, but you almost made it sound joyful, which that’s what God wants us to do sometimes, so thank you, thank you both.
I love how they have made a works of God list. You call that what?
0:26:21 – Brian
Tiny mercies I keep in my Apple notes folder. On my phone I keep a folder called tiny mercies.
0:26:28 – Kayla
Yeah.
0:26:29 – Brian
And, as I said during the podcast, it’s whenever things get very stressful I need to be mindful to look at God at work in other areas, not just the one that I’m all stressed about, because that’ll help my heart to know okay, he’s still there, he’s still working, he’s still God.
0:26:44 – Kayla
Yes, there was something else. Very sweet was listening to them share about different people who, not just for them but for their kids, who have been the hands and feet of Christ for them. They’ve done things for them that have carried them from, like decorating for Christmas, giving them gift cards, wrapping presents. I mean, that’s a love language of its own, seriously.
0:27:14 – Brian
I’d haul them to the mall. I’d put people there wrapping.
0:27:17 – Kayla
Maybe those of us who aren’t suffering can seek God as to how we can provide mercy to those in the throes of it. That’s something I’ve been chewing on since we sat with them.
0:27:32 – Brian
Trisha mentioned a spiritual principle that I love the way she put it. She said we all get spiritual amnesia In other words we forget what God has already done for us yeah. We forget that, and so it’s good to look back and see what God has done, and I want to encourage each of us to do that. That’s just a mental reminder. Look back and see what God has done, and I want to encourage each of us to do that. That’s just a mental reminder. Look back and see what.
0:27:54 – Kayla
God has done, because his faithfulness is what’s going to remind you that he will carry you through the next thing. There was a statement. Adam said I’ve changed a lot, and he said if I was healed and when he talked about the blind man, I think it was in John 9 he referenced it would be easy for me to go back to who I was. And so I realized that this is God sanctifying me to make me more like him. What an amazing place to land when you’re walking around, sometimes limping around with three different illnesses, and yet you realize that this is so that you can be made more like Christ.
0:28:38 – Brian
That’s one thing about Adam he pushes me. He doesn’t do it overtly, but just by his quiet pursuit. I want to be more like Jesus because of Adam.
0:28:50 – Kayla
Yeah.
0:28:51 – Brian
Because I got to be honest with you. He lives out that passage of John 9. I’d be angry about it. I know my heart. I’d be bitter. Adam said this quote I need to stop chasing freedom from pain. True freedom is the hope and healing that will come one day. That’s truly having a heavenward look, that’s truly looking toward heaven. And he just read a book by Paul Tripp that’s called Forever and he was telling me how that’s really helped him look toward heaven and believe it and to put that in his heart.
0:29:33 – Kayla
He shared with us how the word of God steadies him reading Scripture and soaking that in, and that’s so true. I remember we went through a very challenging season early in our marriage and it was a situation completely out of our control. But someone advised me to read the Psalms and I thought, are you crazy? But I committed to read one Psalm a day. I kept my word to that person and it was transformational how my heart was at the end of that versus where I was sitting going into that situation.
0:30:17 – Brian
He says pray that I will live well with what I’ve been given. Again, there’s almost. It even says this to view it as a gift.
0:30:28 – Kayla
Yeah.
0:30:28 – Brian
To view it and it is from the Lord. Okay, it is from the Lord. Okay, it is from the Lord. But there’s also this thing that we call dark providence or something like that. I can’t remember the exact theological term.
0:30:39 – Kayla
Is it bitter providence?
0:30:40 – Brian
Bitter, bitter providence, yeah, that’s what it’s called that, like what God brings into our lives can sometimes make us bitter, and I think that’s where I would be, because one of my biggest fears is to be a burden to you. It’s one of my biggest fears, and so my fear is is God going to bring something like that in my life and now it’s going to unjustly impact those in my life?
0:31:05 – Kayla
I want to end with these reminders from both of them, but most of this came from Trisha. Reminders from both of them, but most of this came from Trisha. Allow yourself to grieve the life you wanted. I loved that. Just it’s okay to not be okay with what’s going on and it’s okay to mourn that yes, and even though you’re accepting where you are, it doesn’t take anything away from what you wish.
0:31:28 – Brian
But neither of them are angry.
0:31:30 – Kayla
No, Remember that God is still in control. Be willing to learn about the other person’s condition. I loved this that Trisha has taken the time to actually research Adam’s conditions so that she can find ways to show care, ask the right questions when they go to the doctor, and to show empathy. So those are just some good reminders to all of us. If we find ourselves in a situation where someone is really suffering and it is an illness or a struggle that we don’t understand, allow them to walk through some of these steps and then be willing to do some of them ourselves.
0:32:13 – Brian
We want to give you a coffee mug and some stickers. And, if I could be so bold, I just want to ask you a question, and this is this week’s trivia question have you been encouraged by Adam and Trisha? That’s all I want to ask, and if you say yes, we’ll send you a coffee mug and a pack of stickers, because they have been encouraging to us. Yeah, so understand that. To do that, you go to our website.
0:32:42 – Kayla
Go find our trivia button. Sorry, I totally zoned out there for a second. Click the trivia button at peasandcarrotspodcast.com website and simply answer this question. Were you encouraged. Were you encouraged I also the reason I zoned out. I kind of want to take it a step further. If someone wants to be really brave, share with us a time that you saw a tiny mercy from.
0:33:08 – Brian
God, that’s good, that’s even better. Let’s do that.
0:33:10 – Kayla
So, yes, please, please, share with us if you were encouraged, and we will pass that on to Adam and Trisha, but we would also love to hear your stories of tiny mercies that God has shown in your life.
0:33:23 – Brian
So simply go to our website peasandcarrotspodcast.com, look for the trivia question and simply tell us when was a time that you saw a tiny mercy from God. So there you go, we’ll send you a coffee mug and a pack of stickers. Hey, you can search the Peas and Carrots podcast wherever you get your podcast.
0:33:42 – Kayla
Or visit our website peasandcarrotspodcast.com. When you do, don’t forget to subscribe to the podcast. You can also follow us on Facebook and Instagram. Just search for the Peas and Carrots Podcast.
0:33:53 – Announcer
For more about the Peas and Carrots Podcast and to reach out to Brian and Kayla, visit peasandcarrotspodcast.com. Growing through the challenges we face and finding hope along the way. That’s the Jesus Fix It Podcast with Jess. Check out jesusfixit.com or search Jesus Fix It wherever you listen to podcasts.