Hey there, Kingdom Warrior!
Oh, do I have a warrior to introduce you guys to today! Shoshana Lipson is the founder of Living Waters chronic pain ministry, a patient advocate, writer, and public speaker for migraine and chronic pain. She has lived with physical pain for most of her life, including chronic migraine, osteoarthritis, and fibromyalgia. Through all her pain, she has had an intimate relationship with Jesus. I think how she has walked through her conditions as a Christian, staying connected to a church, surrendering her ways for God’s, has made her a wise warrior in the Kingdom.
I’m honored to introduce you to Shoshana in this episode. We talk about what life was like for her growing up as a Messianic Jew (fascinating!), how her pain journey has shaped her walk with Christ, and how she became so passionate about helping other chronic pain warriors. She’s honest with us about how hard it is to maintain friendships and an attendance at church when things like any specific scent, loud worship music, or dry ice in the worship session can trigger a migraine for her. I think you’ll really enjoy her practical experience in how to address some of these things in conversations with people she cares about.
Then we dive a little bit deeper and talk about how when God calls us to use our gifts, he does so knowing our pain and limitations. Shoshana shares how she has found the balance between both believing God heals miraculously, and also walking out a life where God has been so faithful to her amidst her pain. She walks us through how Scripture can sometimes be used as “bullets” to harm and shame the chronic pain community, rather than to lead us to Christ’s love and abundance amidst our pain.
Since we talk about the spiritual side of physical pain on this podcast, I think you’ll really appreciate how Shoshana articulates the spiritual wounds that have been created in people’s lives by the misapplication of Scripture surrounding healing. On top of that, this episode was just fun! Shoshana is a wonderful woman with a fascinating life journey and a British accent I could listen to all day! Enjoy this journey of a woman who learned to accept herself and who God is in humility and faith amidst the unfathomable.
Listen to learn more about:
· How to interrupt the interruptions that you’ve had in your life and get back on track with hope and resilience amidst your pain.
· The difference between hopeful remembrance and looking back and wallowing in the darkness of our pain.
· Some fun nuggets from Shoshana’s experience as a Messianic Jew!
Listen now:
Click here to listen on iTunes.
Click here to listen on Google Podcasts.
Click here to listen on Spotify.
Click here to listen on Stitcher.
Click here to listen on Amazon Music.
Favorite Quote from the episode:
· “Unfortunately, that experience continued for decades. There’s a sense of if you’re not healed, you haven’t gone to the right person, or said the right words, or you don’t have enough faith, or there must be sin in your life, or there must be generational sin that requires ministry to get rid of it - that there’s just somehow something wrong with you because you have this. So there’s this sense of blame and shame and judgment in many ways. On the other hand you have people who use Scripture like a bullet – you know, ‘By the stripes of Christ you’re healed’ – is one of the phrases that comes to me. And I love Scripture, I believe this is God’s Word, I know it is God’s Word, but it’s not designed to be used as bullets. God’s Word is not a magic wand where you can just wave it and say, ‘You’re healed,’ because healing lies in God’s hands, not our hands, and not everybody gets healed.”
Links from our conversation:
Hope you loved this episode! Make sure you subscribe on iTunes and leave us a star rating so others can find us, too!
For freedom,
Tera