Podcast

Discovering the Healing Power of God’s Love: Rosann Coulon

Rosann: [00:00:00] I just remember, I was like, I feel like I’m not gonna make it. And something in me, and I know it was the Lord that said, praise me here. I really believe there was a turning point that day that the Lord began to flood his presence into my heart and tell me I am a good God in every single situation that you live through, my goodness, will not fail. It will not falter. I will never forget you. It was just amazing.

Welcome to the Unshakable Hope podcast, where real life intersects redeeming love. I’m Kelly Hall, and this is where we wrestle through faith questions such as, how do I trust God’s heart when his ways and delays are breaking mind? We’ll hear from people just like you and me who have experienced God’s faithfulness when life didn’t unfold as they expected my prayers, that God would renew our hope and his word and his love through these [00:01:00] conversations.

Hey friends, have you ever walked through so many losses that you began to wonder if God really loved you? My guest today grew up a preacher’s kid and has been in ministry most of her life. But the devastation of ongoing losses made her realize she didn’t trust God’s love.

You heard a snippet of one of her stories in the opening, and I just wanna encourage you to listen all the way through because there is a lot of hard won wisdom packed into this short podcast. The tenderness of one of her stories got me choked up a couple of times.

I also wanna mention, in case you haven’t received it yet, that I have a beautiful free devotional. That was just released, called, held in the Wilderness, 31 Stories to Secure Your Worth in God’s Love. The stories, you’ll love, the stories, and the powerful prayers that go with each one.

Each of the authors that contributed to this powerful work have prayed for, you have prayed [00:02:00] for each of their readers. You can get it free. Just go to my website, kelly hall.org, sign up on the homepage or go directly to the resource page, and I’ll have a link in those show notes.

But it’s all about. Allowing yourself to receive God’s love no matter what wilderness you’re walking through. My guest today, Roseanne Colon knows about this. She is a speaker, author, and founder of leaving a Well ministries.

She was led by the Lord on a spiritual journey after some deep heartache. She has endured many years. Devastating chronic illness, the pain of her pastor Father’s medication abuse, and then all the losses that accompany these kinds of heartaches. The Lord placed on Roseanne’s heart, a deep desire to spread Christ-centered encouragement to other hurting souls.

She’s written a beautiful Devo entitled 40 Days to God, my Father, finding Shelter In the Heart of God. Roseanne, I’m so glad you’re here. Welcome to the podcast.

Rosann: [00:03:00] Thank you. I’m excited to be here.

Kelly: Well first, Roseanne, I’m so curious, the name of your ministry is leaving a well. Right? Can you tell us where that name came from?

Rosann: Yeah, so leaving a well is based on a scripture found in Psalm 84, in it’s verse six. And it says, those passing through the valley of Vaca, which is the valley of weeping, they make it a well.

Rosann: And I have. Dealt with, as you introduced me those arduous years of chronic illness and different seasons of hardship that, I didn’t understand and it was difficult. And, it’s through those hardships that the Lord can meet us and our life, our hearts and our faith can be transformed.

Kelly: Mm-hmm.

Rosann: And I, I remember praying often going through those things and just saying to the Lord, Lord, if you will help me come through it, I will help somebody else. I did not know how that would look, honestly., I always wanted to write a book, but I really didn’t know.

Rosann: I didn’t know how [00:04:00] he would work that out.

Kelly: Yeah.

Rosann: So , in that valley, my valleys of weeping the Lord met me and he gave me refreshment to my soul. And so my hope and my desire, my mission is to spread that hope to others who are hurting and just to come alongside them and say, God is here, he is with you.

Rosann: And he will bring you through.

Kelly: Yes. Beautiful.

Kelly: You had such a deep relationship with your dad.

Rosann: Yeah.

Kelly: And I know it suffered a little when your dad started going through addiction and it kind of separated him emotionally from you, from your family, and it was very hard for you and it made you even start to question how much God loved you.

Kelly: Yeah. So could you talk to us about that journey, how that unfolded?

Rosann: Yeah. So as you said, my dad, he was a pastor and he taught me to love the Lord, and he introduced me to Christ. He watching him and my mother and the home that we [00:05:00] had just, it made me want to know this Jesus personally. And I, I gave my life to Christ when I was three years old.

Rosann: That doesn’t mean that I was perfect. I also, went through seasons where I had to, you know, repent and reconnect with the Lord. But just that desire it was built in my home, in the way that my parents loved me and the security that we had. And I idolized my dad and I didn’t.

Rosann: Even realize that until I got through, or we started going through the season with his, um, medication abuse. So he dealt with chronic illness for many years and eventually became a addicted to the medication. And, he wasn’t a person on the streets.

Rosann: You know, with that type of addiction. But it was an addiction nonetheless. And it did affect our family. It affected him and it affected his and our ministry. So when that all basically came to light, and we could no longer deny that this is a [00:06:00] real problem, and it’s it placed a real strain on everything

Rosann: I don’t know that I really even recognized just how shattering it was to my, um, my faith. And, there’s a scripture that says if the foundations be destroyed the people fall. And so through the process. I realized that I had built my foundation more on my dad and ministry life than really God, so that was shattering to me.

Rosann: I remember thinking if my dad can fail, if he can like have studied the word, know the word, teach me the word and live the word, and then get to a place where this can happen to him, I in my spirit, and I didn’t realize that I was saying, well wait a minute, maybe God can too.

Rosann: Um, that distrust. I began to project on to God and I had to go through a [00:07:00] spiritual journey to come back to the real truth and trust of the Lord.

Kelly: Right. Well, it’s so common for us if we’ve been wounded in life, Yeah, the Bible tells us God loves us, but we always interpret that through the lens of what we see on this earth.

Kelly: We can’t comprehend the yes, infinite, powerful, unstoppable, pure love of God that has always been poured out in our lives, and so it’s really common to project our wounds. Onto an interpretation of how God loves us.

Rosann: Yes,

Kelly: exactly. I love how God alerted you to it. I’m so grateful that God uncovers the lies that are in our

Rosann: heart.

Rosann: Oh, yes, yes.

Kelly: But then you had a therapist who one day said to you, do you trust God and outta your mouth without even thinking? Yeah. You said no. Mm-hmm. And that was a pivotal moment in your healing journey.

Rosann: So that really was the moment where I actually recognized it. I, spoke before I thought I, I think if I had really thought about it, I may have tried to be the good Christian [00:08:00] girl and said, oh sure, I trust God.

Rosann: I mean, how, but in that moment, in the weakness I was wondering, is this counseling really going to help me? ‘Cause I had been coming for a while or going to see her for a while, and it was, things were getting harder, it felt like. And I think that moment she chose it was, well, it was the Lord that worked in it.

Rosann: I like to say she pointed her arrow and she let it fly and it hit me. It hit the target. So when I did say no, , I don’t trust God. She says to me, now we can get somewhere.

Rosann: So, right. That was the recognition. God used that moment, and her words to me then were, you need to tell God this, you need to go and you need to be honest.

Rosann: And I had left that session and before I even drove out of the parking lot, I, I did, I sat there and I remember my hands on the steering wheel and I started crying and I said, Lord. I need for you [00:09:00] to help me trust you.

Kelly: Mm,

Rosann: I don’t understand. And everything is shattered and fallen apart and I don’t know where you are.

Rosann: I don’t know what you’re doing and I don’t understand this. And I think it was a pile up of things. You know, I had gone through the years of chronic illness and that lasted 15 years. I was totally, totally disabled. And I had started coming out of that. So I guess in my mind I started thinking, okay, things are, I’m finally coming through something and things are gonna be better.

Rosann: And then the truth of my dad’s addiction and just the fallout from that hit and it was kind of like, maybe, maybe God can let me down, you know? So,

Kelly: yeah.

Rosann: Yeah. Her pointing that out to me is where my journey began. And I went to the Lord and I said, you know, I admitted it to him and I just sensed in my spirit, him saying to me, now it’s time for you to let me be your father.

Kelly: Mm. Yeah.

Rosann: And just that tenderness and that [00:10:00] doesn’t mean that it solved it, of course did not. That was the beginning of the journey.

Kelly: Right.

Rosann: And I said, okay, how do I do this? And I just thought, okay,, I need to know who God is. It comes from knowing him. And I went to his word and I, um, had read the Bible many times, but I started at the beginning and basically, and I prayed and I said, Lord, help me see you.

Rosann: Let me have new eyes. Fresh eyes. Let me behold you. As though I’ve never seen this before.

Kelly: Mm.

Rosann: And I basically searched through , and saw his character and then how he had proven his character to me for all of my life. You know, even in those horrific situations. That’s how it felt to me.

Rosann: He had been there. And , that’s where healing began.

Kelly: Wow. That’s so powerful. I’ve heard Susie Larson quote a pastor, where this pastor says, the [00:11:00] greatest epidemic in the church today is unprocessed. Disappointment. I think so many times when we have disappointment, we can stuff it inside.

Rosann: Yes.

Kelly: But we don’t understand how much it damages our relationship with God until like God did for you. He uncovers it and allows you to tell him the truth, such a key part in healing. Tell him the truth about what you’re feeling, and then allow him to tell you the truth about who he is. And that’s the healing journey.

Kelly: For all of us.

Rosann: Yes, exactly. Yeah. And that’s so true about the disappointments. It was a real pile up. That’s basically, yeah. It was like the pile up and I’m running over and I don’t even know what to do. And, you know, that was one of the things the counselor told me.

Rosann: She’s like, you have to name these griefs.

Kelly: Yes.

Rosann: And you have to grieve them. And honestly, it was a lot to unpack all of that.

Kelly: Right. Right. It is a lot. The pile word that you use. Yes. When you feel like the pile of disappointments [00:12:00] is growing bigger than your God, that’s when you really need to spend some time with him telling him the truth about where you’re hurting and have him tell you the truth,

Kelly: and that’s what I love so much about God is he does speak to us personally. Oh,

Rosann: for

Kelly: sure.

Rosann: Yeah.

Kelly: About our pain.

Rosann: And I think as Christians, or at least for me, having grown up in the church, again, a pastor’s kid, so you know, you’re,

Kelly: yeah.

Rosann: Feeling like you’re on display. You gotta have it all together.

Rosann: Sometimes we may think, oh, but that’s not faith to say. This is hurting me or you are, I need to put , a good face on it. Like, oh, well, obviously this is what the Lord wanted for me and you go on, but you haven’t dealt with Yes, it’s true. I I mean he allowed it, but you still have to process it.

Rosann: We are in human bodies, human flesh.

Kelly: Right.

Rosann: The griefs we have, you know, it says Jesus was a man of sorrow and acquainted with grief. So if, if he did it, we have to do it too.

Kelly: [00:13:00] Right? It’s so key. And I did grow up in a church where it was a great church. I learned how I learned about the Lord and I learned, how to read the Bible, how to study the Bible.

Kelly: I learned who God was, but it, that was one of the areas where I just, we all felt like you had to put on a face. And not tell the truth about your struggles. , That’s a huge learning curve, a huge breakthrough. I remember the first time God taught me, just tell me the truth about what you’re feeling and how that made space for God’s love to pour into my heart.

Kelly: Right? It is such a powerful, powerful thing.

Rosann: Yeah,

Kelly: well, as you processed your pain and distrust of God’s heart, he opened your heart to receive more and more of his love as you were describing. So I’m wondering if you could describe what one of the first and most important lessons of his love toward you, how that changed you.

Rosann: I distinctly remember the scripture early on in numbers. It’s numbers 23 and 19 that says God is not man, that he should lie. Mm. And it was [00:14:00] kind of like a full stop. Yeah. God is not man. And it was as though he said to me, don’t compare me to man.

Rosann: We have wonderful love, endless life. I mean, my dad had loved me wonderfully as a child. My mom did and still does. My husband you know, we have that, but God’s love is not comparable to that at all. And even mine, like I, I love the people in my life, but I can let them down. I can get overwrought or make mistakes.

Rosann: So I can’t compare God’s love to human love.

Kelly: Yeah.

Rosann: And that was that was such a huge, you know, how many times had I read that scripture, it was kind of like a light bulb went off and of course it didn’t solve the problem immediately. It was starting of the journey.

Rosann: Yeah. And then I could look at, you know, other scripture [00:15:00] and you know, there’s lamentation that says the steadfast love of the Lord never ceases.

Kelly: Yes. Amen.

Rosann: His mercies never come to an end. And, and when I dealt with my health issues, I remember I started listening to all these natural health doctors and speakers, and one of the things they said was, your body regenerates new cells every day.

Rosann: And for some reason in that moment, I thought about God’s love. Like that was, to me, a physical showing of God’s love. Every day something is being renewed. I mean, and if he does that and our body. The mercies that come. That’s, that is a showing. That’s to me a tangible showing of God’s mercy every single day being renewed.

Kelly: Wow. That is so powerful.

Rosann: Yeah. It’s just little things like that started really fueling my heart. It’s like, okay, if [00:16:00] God can do that, then he can love me.

Kelly: Yeah,

Rosann: he can hold me up. He can be faithful. As it says, you know, his mercies of the new every morning great. Is, what is the song Great is Thy faithfulness.

Kelly: Mm-hmm.

Rosann: And I did, and that season I put on hymns. I would listen to those. Great is faithfulness. Oh, the deep love of God. I, it’s like I had to hear it. I had to read it. I had to think it all the time.

Kelly: Yes.

Rosann: The lord, he is so good. He is so tender and he’s so kind.

Rosann: And he will heal, he will help and he will meet us if we let him. And , that just began to change everything.

Kelly: You know, I love that you connected that verse about his mercies that are new every morning to regenerating ourselves.

Rosann: Yeah.

Kelly: Every day. Yeah, that is,

Rosann: well that was him. Like he said, lemme show you something

Kelly: my girls have chronic [00:17:00] Lyme disease, and so we’ve been on a long health journey as well, and they’re doing pretty darn well right now, and I’m so grateful, but I’ve never connected that particular verse to the newness of the regeneration and transformation of our bodies.

Kelly: That is really, really cool. I love too that when we’re asking for healing, God won’t always heal our physical bodies, but he’s always healing our souls. And even when he’s saying, even when it feels like a no, we can live in the resounding new Yes. Of God.

Rosann: Yes.

Kelly: He’s declaring over us every single day.

Rosann: Right. Oh yeah. And you know, that goes back to the leaving a well verse where it says, he brings springs into it. Yeah. So in those depths of darkness, he pours his living water into us.

Kelly: Oh, yeah.

Rosann: And , he’s so good. And if we recognize it, that’s, I think, well, I know that Satan, our enemy, he wants to keep [00:18:00] us focused on what’s wrong.

Kelly: Right,

Rosann: and he wants to keep us focused on the pile up that’s sitting in front of us instead of processing it, pulling it back, and seeing God for who he is and what he has for us.

Kelly: Yes. So you were diagnosed with chronic fatigue and fibromyalgia, and you’ve walked a long road of recovery. Mm-hmm. As you’ve described, and there’s so many opportunities to grow weary when you’re facing a pile of ongoing

Rosann: Yeah.

Kelly: And getting bigger disappointments. And you face, the temptation to give up on God to give up on yourself.

Kelly: I have two parts to this question. How did you process these losses and how did God meet you in this journey? Like I said, you’ve answered some of this already, but are there additional things you’d like to share?

Rosann: Yeah, well, I certainly would say that I did not deal with that always perfectly. Uh, I certainly did go through, the depths of despair and feeling like.

Rosann: You [00:19:00] know, God is gone. And I remember thinking, if this is life, then I don’t, I don’t wanna live it, honestly. Yeah. After, days and months and years of that. But God met, he did meet me tenderly and his word was a big part of that. And journaling was something that I did a lot. I kept, just kept trying to write down different scripture and sometimes I would just pray in my writing to the Lord and he also met me tangibly with people who would speak into me I mean, specifically I have an aunt who was at the time living next door to me and had gone through a lot of things and I remember on those dark days I could call her and say,

Rosann: today’s a bad day and she could, you know, pray for me.

Kelly: Wow.

Rosann: She could tell me, I’ve been there. There’s something about having somebody say, I know, like I know how you feel.

Kelly: Mm-hmm.

Rosann: The Lord [00:20:00] blessed me with that. There were also times when she would call me and she said, I just had a feeling you were having a bad day.

Kelly: Oh, I love that.

Rosann: Yeah, so he met me in that way and I would tell people who may be going through that, find a trusted person and if you can’t, there were times I couldn’t talk on the phone. It was just too painful. You know, the headaches, I had a lot of migraines. But, you know, a text from somebody, just say, you know, pray for me.

Rosann: I was blessed with, my husband was supportive and,, my sister and my mom and a church family too. He met me tangibly that way, and I would say, in process and going back to being honest with them.

Kelly: Yeah. Right.

Rosann: Lord, I’m having a hard time and I don’t understand, and I need for you to help me and I’m also going to gently suggest , that we praise the Lord. Yeah. I remember one day specifically I was trying to do laundry and I honestly didn’t, I didn’t even have the energy [00:21:00] to stand and put the clothes in. And so I sat beside the, I had a front loader, so I sat down beside it and I was separating, darks from the light.

Rosann: And I just remember, and I was like, I feel like I’m not gonna make it. And something in me, and I know it was the Lord that said, praise me here. Oh, wow. I remember thinking or taking the clothes, the dark clothes and the light clothes from side to side. And I would pick up a dark sock and I would move it and I’d say, Lord, I praise you.

Rosann: I praise you here. And I would take up a white and I’d put it in the other pile and I’d say, Lord, I praise you here. And a piece, every single piece as I separated and as I moved it, I praised you here. By the time I was done, both hands were up and I was weeping and I was saying, Lord, I praise you. And [00:22:00] something happened.

Rosann: I really believe there was a turning point that day that the Lord began to flood his presence into my heart and tell me I am a good God in every single situation. That you live through, my goodness, will not fail. It will not falter. I will never forget you.  It was just amazing. So I want to tell others.

Rosann: Praise him. In the darkest, in the deepest, in , the hardest. Say it out loud because going from your mouth pushes it to your head and down to your heart.

Kelly: Yes.

Rosann: There’s a scripture that says pray, always give thanks in all things. That’s hard.

Kelly: Yeah.

Rosann: But , it is something he tells us to do.

Rosann: And if he tells us to do it, there has to be a reason and that reason is. He wants to fill you with himself. He wants to use [00:23:00] that action to bring about transformation.

Kelly: Oh, amen. Oh, that is so powerful. I’m so grateful the Lord put it on your heart to share that story. So as we both wipe tears from our eyes, I’ll try to move on to the next question.

Kelly: You have practiced making some really tough faith choices, and I don’t don’t even know if you have, , ongoing health losses that you. Deal with. And if you do, maybe you could share a little bit of that as well. But, you write, I could choose to trust God’s faithfulness in the middle of the storm surrounding me, or allow fear to drown out the truth of his character and paralyze me from ever moving forward.

Kelly: So how can we learn to trust God’s faithfulness in the middle of a storm?

Rosann: Yeah. So, I do think that. That comes back to his character. Really? Yeah. Knowing [00:24:00] God’s character.

Kelly: Yeah.

Rosann: I think about, in our relationships in life, we’re not gonna go out on the street with somebody that we don’t know and trust them.

Rosann: I’m not gonna let them hold my purse. I’m gonna trust the person that I know.

Rosann: I’m gonna trust the person who has proven themself to me. And that comes from knowing God. The way to trust him is to know him.

Rosann: And the way to know him is through his word. It’s by prayer, it’s by, remembering. A lot of what helped me was remembering, okay, I went through that. I got through it.

Kelly: Yeah.

Rosann: God brought me through it. Absolutely. And looking back and said, okay, how did he meet me there? And what he has done before, you know, was the scripture said he’s the same today and forever.

Rosann: Always he doesn’t change. So looking back at that, knowing his character, looking back and being honest with him. [00:25:00]

Kelly: Yeah.

Rosann: Again, we keep going back to that. To be honest with him, I dealt with, I still do struggle. I have to watch my diet. I have to watch my, activities, not to get burned out.

Rosann: I still see a chiropractor, physical therapists. There are still things, I’m on supplements and different things to help, and I think that’s probably something I will have to deal with until the Lord takes me home.

Rosann: What helped me was learning what my particular body needed.

Rosann: And then the losses, the career I wanted, I was teaching special education and I loved it. And I was not able to do that. I went through years. I started back to work after 20 years, but then part-time, I was blessed to work with a popular prayer line.

Rosann: And I worked from home. Now I work just part-time, two days a week at, uh, the Billy Graham Archive and Research Center. So the Lord blessed me with a part-time job that I can do, and then, you know, he’s blessed me [00:26:00] with the writing ministry that, that I do. But so I lost the dreams. You know what I thought my life would look like?

Rosann: I wanted five kids and I didn’t get any. , And , I had to process that and

Kelly: Sure. That’s a huge loss.

Rosann: He has met me in that he has blessed me with a niece and nephew who allow me to mother them. He will meet us in it and he will give us his goodness even in those things. The deliverance that we get may not be what we want.

Kelly: Right.

Rosann: But it will be. Good.

Kelly: Yes,

Rosann: it can be a blessing and it can be filled with hope, and it can be filled with joy because Jesus is our hope and he is our joy.

Kelly: Amen. Well, a couple of things I wanted to mention is remembering, we talked about remembering several times and yes, that’s key.

Kelly: And a word I like to use is rehearse because when we rehearse the way God met us, we’re actually reviewing the story in our mind. We’re [00:27:00] feeling all the emotions we felt in that sad place like you just did with the dryer, the washing machine. Yeah. Yeah, that was so powerful as we rehearsed that story and felt the emotions, I know it’s healed some of our listeners of some wounds in their heart as well.

Kelly: There is just something about putting ourselves back in a story that helps us receive more deeply in our heart the truth that God is communicating to us about his character. So. Powerful.

Rosann: I wanna tag back to, god’s character. So in the devotional I do have, I separated the 10 sections into God’s character.

Kelly: Yes.

Rosann: So seeing him as a loving father, a faithful father, a merciful father, a healing father, a protecting father all of those, there are different ways you can see, and I try to write it where it was comprehensive of who God is and how he can [00:28:00] meet us in every single situation. And everything we deal with in life and the fears that we have and the struggles that we have and how his character will meet us and can meet us there.

Kelly: I love it. I love that devotional and I love that it’s 40 days, 40 days in the you know, it’s so symbolic in the Bible of how right Israelites went through the wilderness.

Kelly: And so you’re taking people on a journey through the wilderness of their grief to see God more clearly, and it’s just really beautifully written. And your emphasis on God’s word, which we’ve heard today, is very healing as well. One of the things I wanted to mention too is the thing that I would say that has healed my heart, the wounds in my heart more than anything else, is that God is a God who speaks to the deepest wounds and he, he is alive.

Kelly: He sees us. He knows us so intimately, so he’s not just throwing out this generic, Hey, I love you. [00:29:00] You know, it’s very intimate when God met you at the washing machine, when God met you in the depths of your sorrow, uh, as you were trying to heal from the, even the grief of realizing you weren’t gonna be a mom.

Kelly: I mean, that those huge, but he knows how to speak to those deepest wounds. And that is a huge comfort for us because when we’re talking to God, we may not have the right words, but we can even say. You say in your word that your spirit prays for me in groans that are too deep.

Kelly: So right now I don’t know how to pray, but I can trust you to pray for me and to speak the words to my heart that I need to hear. What do you want me to know? And he’s so faithful to do that.

Rosann: Yeah, that’s Scripture is definitely something I relate to and have thought about so many times. Lord, I can’t pray, but your word says you will pray for me.

Rosann: Please do it. And I would also say, in those times when it’s hard to pray, read the Psalms out loud. That’s where I found a lot [00:30:00] of help. I mean, just crying through, where are you, God, how long? Oh Lord.

Rosann: And when the psalmist would turn their eyes to the Lord and say, but still, I will trust you.

Rosann: It’s a way to get through the pain to the one who can heal and help the pain.

Kelly: Yes, and that’s such a good suggestion. That’s beautiful, powerful. That also has helped me heal so much as well. Yeah. And the hymns that you mentioned. Yes, too, just letting worship music preach truth to your soul.

Kelly: Right. Well, You’ve offered us so much encouragement, Roseanne, but I’m gonna ask another question, what words of hope would you offer to someone listening who finds themselves in an impossible place today and they don’t have any idea what to do or how to even talk to God about their heartache?

Kelly: And we’ve just talked about some of that.

Rosann: Yeah. That’s what I would say is. First be honest and say, Lord, I’m in this struggle. Help me talk to you. And then if I don’t have the words, [00:31:00] then I would say to the Lord, , your word does say that you will intercede for me, and, that you will pray according to your will. And now we want God’s will and he can pray better than we can. Yes. And asking Jesus to do that for us. And again, the same thing I would say is would be to read the Psalms aloud. I would also say try praising him. Yeah. A as bad as this situation is, look for something to praise him for.

Kelly: Yes.

Kelly: That story is gonna stick in our minds of you sitting in front of the washing machine dryer. I don’t think anyone listening today is gonna forget that story. Yeah. We can praise the Lord even in our deepest heartache, and that something supernatural and transformative happens through his spirit as we do.

Rosann: And looking at the fact that in laundry you don’t think about praising, looking for something in praise in laundry,

Kelly: right.

Rosann: So that is a proof of looking past [00:32:00] what we see in front of us to the God. Who is around us? Who is in us, and who is for us?

Kelly: Amen.

Rosann: And I try to never miss an opportunity to tell people that sometimes you may feel stuck. I was stuck. I couldn’t have gotten through without the help of a godly Christian counselor.

Kelly: Yeah.

Rosann: Or at least that’s how the Lord used it for me. And so I would suggest if you are feeling stuck, if you’re in a place where you’re feeling hopeless and just devastated and need help, I would say reach out to a Christian counselor

Kelly: Absolutely.

Rosann: Who is trustworthy. That can help you, I had a counselor who called me out and that’s exactly what I needed.

Kelly: And even for all of us, I had a friend on the show, Dr. Tammy Smith. A lot of my listeners know her, but she said I think everybody could use a counselor.

Kelly: And I

Rosann: Yeah,

Kelly: agree with that.

Rosann: Yeah, I do too, too. I

Kelly: wish I just had one on speed dial all the time.

Rosann: Yeah, I agree. but

Kelly: we [00:33:00] have our dear friends. We have our friends like you mentioned

Rosann: for sure. Yes.

Kelly: You know, the Lord and I, here’s another thing that I would do as well, is just when I couldn’t, even, when I didn’t even have the emotional. Bandwidth to reach out to someone. I would just pray, Lord, call up my prayer warriors. Call up prayer warriors. Oh, yes. And I would get texts from people just saying, , God, put you on my heart and I’ve been praying for you. And I would just feel the Lord’s love.

Rosann: Yeah. Definitely. And I also just wanna say that. Nothing is hopeless.

Kelly: Amen.

Rosann: Because God is hope he will not disappoint us. I mean, I have been greatly disappointed in my life. But it was never by Jesus

Kelly: Amen.

Kelly: Gosh, I’ve gotten choked up on this podcast more than on most. Well, your website is leaving a well.com and you have a lot of free resources. So why don’t you tell our listeners how they can get in touch with you and what they can find.

Rosann: Yes, I would love for anyone to connect with [email protected] [00:34:00] and you can go to the free resource page and I, I also have the first chapter of the devotional that you can download for free and start reading.

Rosann: And then there’s a 31 day. Prayer journal that gives prompts and scripture and just a way to help you process. I thought about in writing that people who were having hard days, so it will help you maybe think about some of the hard things you’re going through and, and be honest with the Lord.

Rosann: I have downloadable scripture cards and just a host of other different things that I hope would be encouraging. That’s really my desire because I’ve been there, is to reach those who are struggling to hold on to hope, to know that Jesus is our hope and to get to him.

Kelly: Amen. Thank you so much for being here, Roseanne. This was very encouraging.

Rosann: Thank you. I’ve enjoyed it.

If you were encouraged in your faith today, it’d be great if you’d help get the word out by subscribing, sharing with a friend, or leaving a review. [00:35:00] I’d love to hear from you. You can reach out through my website, kelly hall.org and pick up some free resources while you’re there. Thanks for listening to the Unshakeable Hope podcast.