TOP 25 David and Reneé Lyons: Don't Waste the Pain

Tera Bradham DeNeui
Oct 3, 2022
3 min read

I am just absolutely giddy about getting to share our Number 5 episode with you guys, not because the interview is about a giddy subject, but because I believe this conversation is so powerful that I can’t wait to see how God uses it in your life. David and Renée Lyons joined us for Episode 85 of the Heal Podcast, and to this day our conversation is one of my favorites.

Firstly, let me just say that when I read David’s book, Don’t Waste the Pain, in preparation for my interview, I was blown away by all the golden nuggets I found inside. I journaled them, put them on sticky notes, and marked up that book like crazy.

The book was actually cowritten by both David and his sister, Lynda Lyons Richardson. They share intimate parts of their personal journals and thoughts as Linda talks about her own journey with ovarian cancer (which eventually took her home to Jesus after a long and valiant battle) and David talks about his journey watching his twelve-year-old son battle an aggressive childhood cancer.

In our conversation on the podcast, we talk about many of the lessons David and Renée learned through their journey with Ian, their son who had cancer. After walking through the horrendous journey of watching their son suffer, David and Renée ended up watching God take Ian home, as well. They share, through tears, about surrender, joy, pain, loss, suffering, and the goodness of God amidst it all.

I believe we are most drawn to people whom we have seen suffer and who have come out of that suffering with more beautiful relationships with God than they had before. This is why I think David and Renée are such compelling people: they have wrestled with God, they have suffered deeply, and yet they have found God to be more faithful than they ever could have hoped for.

If you're having trouble trusting God amidst your pain, then this is the episode for you. David and Renée are the wise mentor couple you’ve always wanted to walk you through some of your darkest days. Today in this episode, they do just that. This is one of the episodes where you are going to want a notepad and a pen handy, because there are so many quotes you'll want to remember.

Listen to learn more about:

· What it looks like to pray through the pain, to move from naïve trust to seasoned trust through your hardship.

· How we can interact with the physicians involved in our journeys, and how both we and our families can be testimonies to them, while they are often God’s instrument of healing to us.

· How we find truth in the midst of our pain when our feelings and circumstances don’t lead us to truth.

Listen now:

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Favorite Quotes:

· “Seasoned trust says, ‘I know he might hurt me, I know he’s in this with me, and I still trust him.’ Seasoned trust says, ‘I still trust him. I still know he’s good. I don’t understand what’s going on. I don’t like it. This stinks. What are you doing? I hate this!’ And so we pour out our hearts to God, and yet by the end [of the Psalms of complaint in the Bible], something happens. We’ve spilled our guts to God, but in the end we say, ‘But I still trust you. I still want to know you. I still want to walk with you.” -The Heal Podcast Episode 85

· “There is a life on the other side of surrender that is beautiful and good, full of joy and peace and grace. Obviously, we still feel the pain. It’s ten years later, and I’m sitting here weeping. But I’m telling you, for years I had prayed that God would increase my joy…now I am experiencing more joy than I’ve ever experienced. Pain and joy can coexist.” -The Heal Podcast Episode 85

· “Pain, more than anything else, makes us desperate for control.” -Don’t Waste the Pain

· “After nine years, I no longer ask ‘why?’ Now I just ask, ‘What?’ As in, ‘What do you want me to do with what I know?’” -Don’t Waste the Pain

· “The making of people of destiny is often about how they respond to the anvil of pain.” -Don’t Waste the Pain

Links from our conversation:

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For freedom,

Tera