Speaking Topics

What do you picture hope as? To so many of us, it’s just a vague, fluffy idea. A word without much meaning. Wishful thinking, wimpy, naive, or luck. But it’s none of those things. Our hope does not put us to shame. Our hope is concrete, firm, and real. Very real. And very alive.

When trials strike, we need to know exactly what our hope is and why we have it. We need to be able to hold onto it in the darkest night and know the truth behind it.

Chronic illness can make us believe a lot of lies about ourselves. When something as all-consuming as illness enters our life, it’s so easy to adopt it as our identity. But this is so unhealthy for us — not to mention it’s a sin.

There is so much more to you than chronic illness, and it’s important to remember where your identity truly rests. Especially when chronic illness changes so much about you and your life and it can feel like you are losing yourself to brokenness.

Relationships. Relationships can be wonderful . . . but they can also be hard, painful, and messy. Couple that with chronic illness (also hard, painful, and messy), and relationships can seem impossible.

In this talk, I take it relationship by relationship as we talk about how to navigate them in a God-honoring way. Even when we’re lacking in energy, mental clarity, time, and physical ability.

Chronic illness, understandably, ignites a lot of fear. Fear of flares, fear of dying, fear of the unknown, fear of a diagnosis, fear of more suffering in the future, fear of hurting and losing people, fear of people’s reactions to illness, fear of good things, fear of returning to your worst moments — and much more. 

Yet despite all the fear, we are called to live courageously trusting in God. Because He alone is bigger than it all. But . . . how do we do that?