Hey, friends! As I enter maternity leave and this new season of being a parent, we’re taking a short break from publishing weekly episodes of the Heal Podcast. Too often we can be consumed with what’s to come next, but we wanted to take this opportunity to celebrate everything that God has done through the Heal Ministry and the Heal Podcast over the past two years.
One way we wanted to do that was by celebrating the amazing guests who make the podcast a reality! Over the next few months, we’re going to be revealing to you the Top 25, most-listened-to episodes from the Heal Podcast’s first two years. Don’t forget to subscribe to the podcast wherever you listen so that you’ll be notified when we drop Season Two of the podcast in January of 2023!
Rolling in at number 25 in our countdown is Episode 59 with author and counselor Esther Smith. Esther is a speaker some of you may be familiar with from the Diamonds Conference. After suffering from malpractice of a bad chiropractic adjustment, Esther was thrust into the world of chronic pain. With flareups in her hip limiting her everyday movement and life, she was forced to question why God allows chronic pain and what his purposes are within it.
Esther brings a unique perspective to the chronic pain conversation because she is also a counselor. In this episode she takes us through her personal journey of pain, illness, loss, and redemption. She shares practical ways we can both grieve our losses and still move forward in the kingdom of God, regardless of what hand we’ve been dealt.
In addition, we got to talk to Esther right before she released her fourth book, the Whole Life, where she dismantles the misconception that self-care is not biblical. A lot of us in the Church assume that burnout and exhaustion are unavoidable if you’re really pursuing God’s calling for your life, but Esther shows us that these are actually warning signs that should point us to God for his daily help.
Listen to learn more about:
· When chronic pain takes away our sense of self and who we have always thought ourselves to be. How do we process that and what do we do with it?
· What it looks like to live a life of work, service, and rest even when the pain doesn’t go away.
· How biblical self-care does not equate to selfishness or laziness, but to stewarding every part of your life for God’s glory and the good of others.
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 Quotes:
· “Chronic pain forces us to wrestle with the underlying thought, deep down inside us all, that maybe we are worth more when we do more.” -But God, Wouldn’t I Be More Useful to You If I was Healthy?
· “Grief is the process by which we actively release all that we feel, question, and remember at the feet of God and the people he has placed in our lives.” -When Chronic Pain and Illness Take Everything Away
· “We can find balance in our past when we look back to not only see the bad things that have happened, but to purposefully look for and see the good things that have happened and the ways that God has met us and finding joy in that.” – Ep. 59, Heal Podcast
Links from our conversation:
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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