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Walking outside, breathing in beauty gives me great peace. it also provides me time to gain perspective. Today, as I was on a walk, Joel and I were talking about how many people leave their faith or doubt their walk with God because they have met other believers who have hurt them or been legalistic or disappointed them. Today, I read an excerpt out of my book Help, I’m Drowning. There is much more on the podcast, but if you have struggled, you are not alone. I wrote Help, I’m Drowning because I wanted others to feel companionship in their own storms of life. Maybe a friend would be encouraged by this book this season. But in any case, I hope my podcast will encourage you. From Help, I’m Drowning.
Many years ago, just when I needed a support system, the mother of one of my best friends played a sort of grandmother role to my children once in a while. She lived two hours from our home, but she invited me to come for a weekend so she could “spoil” my children. Southern fried chicken and “Larla’s brownies” were always on the weekend menu.
What a grace it was to me during a lonely, discouraging season of my life. My father was dying, Clay and I were only making $600 a month, and we were praying fervently about decisions we needed to make for our future that were scary and entailed a lot of risk. The stakes were high, I was mothering three young children, and there were just so many difficult details in our lives at the time.
I called Clay as I was getting ready to come home from the trip to tell him how much fun we had, and how refreshing the time had been for all of us. Clay didn’t seem to hear me, as he responded, “Sally, did you have some kind of argument with XXXXX before you left? She called me and said she hated you and did not ever want to talk to you again, and she is going to be talking to leadership about why they should not allow you to teach the Bible study anymore.”
Stunned doesn’t even begin to define the depths of my surprise. This was a friend with whom I regularly met for coffee. I had just thrown a party to celebrate her birthday. I could not have been more surprised. I even asked Clay if he was confused and was mistaking her for someone else.
A catastrophic season followed. I was heartbroken, deeply hurt to my core. Her gossip, hatred, and jealousy of the response to my growing Bible study caused her to spread rumors and dissension to others. It was a horrible, terrible, nightmare-style time in my life.
Fellow Christian’s Blows Hurt the Most
One of my biggest challenges in this very fraught and emotional storm was that as a youngish, naive believer, I didn’t know some of the worst hurts in my life would come from other women who called themselves Christians. If someone knew and loved God, wouldn’t they be constrained to move in the direction of love, peacemaking, and unity?
I hate to say it, but this storm was only one of several we experienced in our years of ministry. More on AtHomeWithSally podcast.