This season of The GoodHard Story Podcast has been rich beyond belief. Every episode was inspired by a question or suggestion YOU sent to me, so thank you! Because of your thoughtful contributions and vulnerability, we’ve had dozens of life-giving and heart-changing conversations with people who are living their good/hard lives with clarity, intention, courage, faith, and (of course) transcendent hope. I am so grateful that you shared so many hours of the past year with me, friends. So many of t...
Jun 19, 2025•37 min
What story do you believe you’re living in? Friend, your answer to that question could not be more important. Learning to tell the truest version of my story to empathetic listeners has healed my heart after so much breaking. A decade and a half of this work has helped me integrate the hurt with the hope, and God’s goodness with his mystery. Today I’m sitting down with the person who taught me how to start telling that story years and years ago—Dr. Curt Thompson. Dr. Thompson is a renowned psych...
Jun 12, 2025•1 hr
Seasons of suffering can take so much from us—our health, a loved one, our sense of security. There’s a more expansive loss that runs through all those other kinds of loss: we lose our ability to imagine a good future. We only remember pain and hurt, which means we anticipate a future filled with more pain and hurt. I don’t think it has to be this way. Even when the worst things happen, it’s possible to dream new dreams. And it’s possible to imagine a good future for ourselves and for the people...
Jun 05, 2025•1 hr 5 min
Blessed are those who mourn. Most of us have heard it over and over…but I know I’m not the only one wondering how this could be true in God’s kingdom. Megan Fate Marshman will give you imagination for how the mourning and meek and poor in spirit might be called blessed…and might actually believe they’re blessed. This friend of mine has navigated the deepest kind of loss after her husband’s death in 2021. Since then, Megan has become a survival guide for grieving and healing with hope. She is nav...
May 29, 2025•1 hr 3 min
From the early days of my stroke recovery, home—and all the rituals of home—have been a major part of my healing. Home has looked a lot of ways over the years, but my family and I have always tried to make it a place of comfort, rest, and connection. If you’re on a journey to finding a “new normal,” I cannot overstate the importance of making your home into a place of healing. So how do we do that exactly? Today I’m joined by Phylicia Masonheimer, who believes in the power our homes have in form...
May 22, 2025•51 min
At some point, you’ve probably felt like you were living in some strange alternate version of your life. Maybe it was after a tragedy as dramatic as a stroke. Perhaps it was something as mundane as realizing you’re middle aged. We desperately want to find our way back to the way life used to be, but it turns out that version of life is beyond our reach. So what are our options here? We can keep longing for what was—unsatisfied, absent, and stuck. Or we can learn to love the “new normal” in front...
May 15, 2025•35 min
“Hope is believing in advance what can only be understood in reverse.” These words have been the rally cry of my soul for over a decade now, but I didn’t come up with them myself. Philip Yancey did. This gentle, thoughtful writer has spent his career exploring the topic of suffering which, as you can imagine, has meant so much to me. Today I have the honor of sitting down with Philip to talk about some things that we can’t understand today, but trust we’ll understand some day. (Like his recent P...
May 08, 2025•1 hr 1 min
Some of you will want to turn this episode off about three minutes in because we’re talking about deconstruction. I say this with love: skipping this episode would be a mistake! Whether you’ve never doubted your faith for a moment or you’re ready to burn it all down, today’s conversation has something so good for you. I guarantee it. Having an out-of-the-blue stroke as a healthy 26 year-old and losing the life I loved so dearly pretty much cured me of pretending I had all the answers. Grief, hea...
May 01, 2025•1 hr 1 min
Aging is a privilege and we should treat it like the gift it is. But the gift of aging comes with complex challenges and unavoidable sadnesses, like memory loss. If you’re caring for loved ones with Alzheimer’s or dementia—or if you’re facing a memory loss diagnosis yourself—I want to offer some encouragement and practical wisdom for you to navigate this tender experience as well as you can. This week’s podcast guest is Alzheimer’s specialist Megan Carnarius, who is doing the hard and holy work ...
Apr 24, 2025•57 min
I’ve processed and shared countless insights from my second-chance life, but no idea has resonated more deeply and widely with you all than the idea of “invisible wheelchairs.” You know what I’m talking about—those unseen parts of our stories that feel like they’re holding us back from the most abundant versions of our lives. Maybe your invisible wheelchair is shame, doubt, worry, loneliness, or insecurity. As a physically disabled person, I’m dealing with “invisible wheelchairs” that have absol...
Apr 17, 2025•40 min
“It's not so much our story that makes us who we are. It’s God’s story who makes us who we are.” Identity, for so many of us, is the sum of our memories, our personality, and the ability to tell the story of who we are. So what’s left when we lose all the things that make us who we are? John Swinton is a disability theologian who is helping people find God in the experiences of mental illness, memory loss, and intellectual disability. This gentle genius (with a glorious Scottish accent, I might ...
Apr 10, 2025•48 min
Today I’m offering you a masterclass in grieving well. One day—maybe even today—you will look at your story and see the very thing you prayed you'd never see. You could numb out and absolutely no one would blame you. But you have another option. It's harder, but so much better. Today, in my most tender conversation ever on The GoodHard Story Podcast, my strong-yet-soft sister-in-law Mary Austin Wolf Hall shares the treasures she's found in the deep darkness of a late term miscarriage. She’s face...
Apr 03, 2025•1 hr 24 min
You’ll reckon with depression at some point in your life, if you haven’t already. Whether it’s seasonal, circumstantial, or a lifelong reality, it’s possible to “partner with God” as we navigate depression. I had the privilege of taking notes from the winsome and wise Hannah Brencher about the disciplines she’s putting into place to live faithfully with depression. Whether you’re dealing with darkness today or simply looking to optimize your mental wellness, this conversation is packed with prac...
Mar 27, 2025•47 min
Chronic pain is an (often) invisible form of suffering that can swallow someone whole—body, mind, and soul. Persistent pain is a daily reality for so many of us. It’s vitally important that we learn to cope and hope in healthy ways. Today I'm speaking with Olivia Feller-Gerber. She’s an author, entrepreneur, and advocate who has lived with the “invisible wheelchair” of chronic pain since she was a teenager. For those of us dealing with the felt-but-not-seen reality of chronic pain, I want you to...
Mar 20, 2025•51 min
I’m not gonna lie to you. Yes, my stroke set me free from cultural beauty standards in so many ways. But I do NOT have it all figured out. Strongholds and struggles remain. (Like the fact I obsessively highlight my hair every 8 weeks...) So I was a little intimated by this “Ask Me Anything” episode about beauty and body image. I feel like a fraud sometimes! You showed up with honest questions, so I tried to show up with honest answers in return. And my teammate Leah joined in to add some of her ...
Mar 13, 2025•39 min
Most of us have been told a lot of lies about beauty. We’ve been given the wrong story about what beauty is, why it matters, and who it belongs to. Today I want to replace at least a few of those lies with five truths I uncovered when my outer appearance changed completely. These truths aren’t popular and they might even make you uncomfortable. (In fact, I kinda hope they do!) Facing these realities took me decades and a lot of heartache, but the pain has been worth the freedom I now feel from o...
Mar 06, 2025•29 min
The first time I looked in a mirror after my stroke, I didn’t know who was staring back at me. My face was unrecognizable, and my body might as well have been a stranger’s. It took me years to accept the reality of my new appearance. Feeling anything close to "positivity" was not in the realm of possibility. We’re living in the era of body positivity and I am HERE for it! But as a woman living with disabilities, I can’t always muster up positive feelings about a body that doesn’t function well m...
Feb 27, 2025•42 min
“I am the embodiment of the worst case scenario. I am what every athlete fears and what pregnant parents dread. I am the catalyst for losing faith and questioning God.” Those stunning words were written by today’s guest Dr. Amy Kenny, a brilliant author and scholar who lives with disabilities. That phrase— “worst case scenario”—resonates so deeply with me since I was born with a congenital brain defect that, essentially, exploded out of the clear blue when I was in my twenties. Today I have the ...
Feb 20, 2025•49 min
Today I’m sharing one of my favorite chapters of a book I’ve ever written. Several years ago, my husband Jay and I released a book called Suffer Strong . It’s all about how we were able to survive anything because we were willing to redefine everything—from failure to trauma to commitment. Even beauty. That’s the chapter you’re about to hear. Before my stroke, I had never put too much focus on the way I looked. But once my face became paralyzed and my body lost a lot of its typical function, I h...
Feb 13, 2025•43 min
I’m going to make a big claim: This will probably be the most sweeping, inspiring conversation on beauty you’ll hear in your life. I say this with such confidence because Brook Hensley changed the way I understand beauty. And she’s about to do the same for you. Over the next several weeks, we’re going to focus deeply on the story of our beauty and our bodies—what the story is, who is telling it to us, and what needs to change. But before we get into the flesh-and-bones of it all, I want to talk ...
Feb 06, 2025•1 hr 21 min
Recently I received emails from two people in very different circumstances who were grappling with (essentially) the same question: Who is telling me the story of who I should be? Their messages struck me so deeply because, for the first half of my life, I asked other people to tell me that story. I desperately wanted to please people by giving them the power over who I was and what I should do. Then I was set free by, of all things, a massive stroke. My new physical limitations meant I was no l...
Jan 30, 2025•50 min
If you think your calling is collateral damage in the hurt and hardship you’ve experienced, I understand how you’re feeling. The work I’m doing now looks nothing like the dreams I had for my life. But now, I can’t imagine dreaming up anything better. Today on The GoodHard Story Podcast we’re covering one of my all-time favorite topics: how our limitations—rather than our strengths—invite us to lean into God’s calling for our lives. Give me 45 minutes of your day and I’ll give you a new way of ap...
Jan 23, 2025•41 min
How could it be true that God withholds no good thing from those who walk uprightly? I spent years trying to make God’s ways align with my definition of goodness, but nothing ever seemed to click. Finally, I realized I actually needed to redefine what goodness meant to me. It was not an easy process, let me tell you, but it has formed me for the better. My friend Lysa has been on the same journey of redefining everything in a life that has upended every expectation she had. While our pain has ta...
Jan 16, 2025•1 hr 3 min
I don’t re-listen to my own podcast episodes often, but I’ll be replaying this one many times over. My guest Dr. Dan Allender is a trauma therapist. And if you just assumed this episode has nothing for you, consider Dr. Allender’s words: “All life east of Eden is a form of trauma.” Whew. So, yeah, you need to hear this. Dr. Allender’s work has been a gamechanger in my life and I insist that you have access to his wisdom, too! He has given me a framework for understanding, grieving, and telling m...
Jan 09, 2025•54 min
It’s 2025, friends. Who do you hope to become in the year ahead? You and I are probably not going to become people of resilience, compassion, and courage by accident. Our circumstances, beliefs, relationships, and decisions are shaping our souls—in both good and hard ways—every minute of the day. I want to understand exactly how it’s happening. And what I can do to create the identity I want. Today we’re talking to my winsome friend Bob Goff —author, speaker, and unofficial spokesperson for belo...
Jan 02, 2025•45 min
"Hope is not a fixed point I will reach. Hope is the living force that propels me through the ongoing cycle of hurting and healing." In these sacred weeks surrounding Christmas, I want to acknowledge that the holiday season isn’t such a bright time for all of us. These final days of the year can be a painful reminder of what we once had. What is no longer. What will never be. Each week in the month of December, I'll be sharing a short reflection that invites you reconsider your darkest seasons a...
Dec 26, 2024•13 min
"Hope is an escape hatch from the what-if loop because it gives you and me permission to live the lives we have. It narrows our vision to work with what’s in front of us. Hope puts to rest all the lives we could have lived and gently reminds us, “This is the one you’ve got. Don’t waste it.” In these sacred weeks leading up to Christmas, I want to acknowledge that the holiday season isn’t such a bright time for all of us. These final days of the year can be a painful reminder of what we once had....
Dec 19, 2024•13 min
"Some of the best fruit in my life will be incubatedin dark, cold seasons of suffering." In these sacred weeks leading up to Christmas, I want to acknowledge that the holiday season isn’t such a bright time for all of us. These final days of the year can be a painful reminder of what we once had. What is no longer. What will never be. Each week in the month of December, I'll be sharing a short reflection that invites you reconsider your darkest seasons as times of formation, preparation, and pos...
Dec 12, 2024•12 min
"Suffering confronts me with the question, What is it i want from God? Do i want the gifts, or do I want the Giver Himself?" In these sacred weeks leading up to Christmas, I want to acknowledge that the holiday season isn’t such a bright time for all of us. These final days of the year can be a painful reminder of what we once had. What is no longer. What will never be. Each week in the month of December, I'll be sharing a short reflection that invites you reconsider your darkest seasons as time...
Dec 05, 2024•14 min
I became disabled in an instant, but my husband Jay did not become a caregiver in that same instant. No one, like, gave him a pamphlet or anything! He had to learn by trial and error, and the stakes were high. Many of you, dear friends, are in a marriage with a caregiver or care-receiver and you’re navigating what it looks like to uphold a version of your vows you didn’t see coming. I am the first person to affirm what a complex position you are in. After nearly 17 years of this caregiving-in-ma...
Nov 28, 2024•50 min
