Roger Marsh: Welcome to Family Talk. I'm Roger Marsh. Yesterday, we aired the first half of a presentation by an incredible Christian motivational speaker who has an amazing testimony that really is a beautiful unfolding story. Her name is Katherine Wolf. She gave the presentation in early March of this year at the Extraordinary Women's Conference inside the Mabee Center in the campus of Oral Roberts University. Now, if you missed part one, you can find it at drjamesdobson.org/broadcast.
Now, there were over 4,000 women in attendance for this powerful presentation hanging on every word that Katherine said. But honestly, and I want to be clear, I gained as much value out of what I heard as anyone. This presentation is for both women and men alike, young or old, no matter what your life situation. Katherine Wolf will make you rethink your perspective on your present physical, mental, and spiritual condition. It is that good. We're going to share the second half and conclusion of that presentation with you now.
And again, if you missed yesterday's broadcast, you can find it online at drjamesdobson.org/broadcast. On yesterday's program, Katherine Wolf told her story of having a massive brain stem stroke when she was in her twenties. She almost died. She did survive, but she became severely disabled in the process. Katherine is a wife, a mother, a communicator, and an advocate with a powerful story to tell. She is the author of two books, and she and her husband, Jay, reside in Atlanta, Georgia with her two sons, James and John.
Here now to offer hope and encouragement is Katherine Wolf on today's edition of Dr. James Dobson's Family Talk.
Katherine Wolf: I love the truth of Isaiah 45:3. Some of you may know this. It's one of my very favorite passages. It says, "I will give you hidden treasure in the darkness, riches stored in secret places, so that you may know that I am God, that God of Israel, the God who summons you by name." I love that deep truth. That if we are in the deep darkness, called to the darkness, we should get some treasure there, right, ladies? We should grab hold of it. Keep that treasure. Cherish it every day for the rest of our lives, right?
If you got to go to the darkness, learn the right lessons there and hold tight. Let it inform how you live every day for the rest of your entire life. Goodness! I feel like what I'm about to share with you might just be my primary treasure since the stroke. I feel like the Lord has made this truth so abundantly clear to me, and it's something I never understood as a little girl. I don't think I heard this very much, but here it is. I made up a word. I'm sure the dictionary is going to call me any day to put this word in.
I'm don't know but the word is this, goodhard. It's one word. We are living the goodhard life. Those things are not mutually exclusive. No, no, no. I believe they beautifully coexist in our stories, that we are all living the goodhard life. I love the truth of Colossians 3. I won't even bother sharing it for time's sake. Look it up. Colossians 3. Keep our eyes on Jesus, not looking down. If we're serious about living this resurrection life in Christ, I am saying it, then we need to act 8like it.
Don't shuffle around, eyes to the ground, absorbed with the things right in front of you. No, no, no. Look up. That is where the real action is. Hallelujah! Thank you. I love that. Look it up, Colossians 3:1-2 in the Message version. It'll strengthen your faith, ladies. I was at a conference years ago with an incredible songwriter named Sarah Groves. Some of you may know of her. She's amazing. She wrote this beautiful song called "Open My Hands." And in that song, the first part says, "I believe in a blessing.
I don't understand. I've seen a rain fall on the wicked and the just. Rain is no measure of his faithfulness. He withholds no good thing from us." I remember hearing this song, hearing these lyrics and having myself wrestle deeply with this idea, this concept of Psalm 84:11 that God withholds no good thing from those who walk uprightly with Him. How could that be true? How can it be true that God withholds no good thing, when we see people every day whose lives are ravaged by pain and suffering of all different kinds, from financial ruin to terrible medical diagnosis, to everything in between?
How could God withhold no good thing? Well, she did a deep dive and discovered a brilliant theologian from the 1600s named Sir Richard Baker, and he wrote the following and it absolutely changed my life. He wrote, "God cannot withhold the good things, the very best things from us because the truly good things are not things at all. The truly good things are internal. They are the peace of conscience, joy in the Holy Spirit, the fruition of His presence in this life, and the assurance of His face in the next."
I will say it again for the lady in the back and you need to write this down and put it on your mirror at home because this will shade you. This will free you and shade you to know nothing happening in the outside world totally matters. It is the internal that ultimately matters. The peace of conscience, the joy in the Holy Spirit, the fruition of his presence in this life, and the assurance of His face in the next. Of these things, we can be certain, certain God will never ever withhold from those walking up rightly with Him.
Now here's the thing, I absolutely love that thought, and I do feel it has sustained me. Right now, I am 14 years post stroke. I'm 39 years old. I had the stroke. I turn 40 in two days, y'all. Well, three days. Thanks. Oh, thank you. My 40th birthday is March 8th and the stroke was when I was 26. I've been living this life for 14 years almost. It has meant some hard living. I severely broke my right leg. I fell into a bathtub and broke some ribs. I most recently tore my ACL, NCL, and meniscus, and it was so bad that it required surgery to repair.
I've had 13 surgeries since the stroke, including three brain issues, not including the AVM, where they've had unrelated but probably there's some link related brain issues, including a separate brain aneurysm that I had to have removed, artery dissection, and just some real horrific surgical stuff. It's been rough, I'll be honest. The last 14 years have meant some deep physical and emotional sufferings of all kinds.
But through it all, there has been this deep thread of feeling almost untouchable because I know too much. No matter what is happening to my physical body, I feel almost untouchable in knowing that the truly good things of God are actually inside of me. Amen. Thank you, Lord. That is true for every one of you. That somehow, regardless of anything happening in our sad, messed up, fallen world, we can live with assurance of seeing our Savior in the next, of recognizing His fruition and presence right here, of recognizing the joy and peace in them.
G.K. Chesterton wrote that the secret weapon of the Christian life is joy. That that can never be taken from us. I just think that is gold. Please remember those truths, that the truly good things have gone are always happening inside of you and not in the outside world. Now, I'll tell you, that feels good maybe on a Tuesday, but by Wednesday, you're like, "Uh, that's not really sustaining me." Now, I'm standing to make a word picture here so you don't forget this, because your brain thinks differently when the speaker moves around.
Here we go. Sometimes, people, you're not feeling it anymore. Okay, cool. Yeah, the good things of God. Yeah, yeah, yeah. It's not good to be me today. Well, listen, ladies, sometimes you got to fake it until you make it. Sometimes you just got to get bossy with your soul. Psalm 42:5 was a wonderful example of this. The Psalmist David writes, "Why are you so downcast oh my soul? Why are you in turmoil within me?" And we see the change, "Hope in God, for I will again praise Him, my rock and my salvation."
We see the Psalmist get his soul back on board, essentially get sassy with your soul, ladies. That's what the Psalmist did and sometimes we got to do that because we may not be feeling it all the time. We're in pain. The last thing we want to do is respond to pain with the truth that we know. However, we know too much. We know we're going to get through what we're going through because of where we've been. And we are still here today. All we have to do... Yes. Thank you, Lord.
All we have to do is look back in our story, go back, and just remember how God has brought you here. You are here today. I believe if you have a pulse, you have a purpose. I have a pulse. You have a pulse. We have tremendous purpose. Now, I have gotten this distinct privilege, as has my husband, of founding a camp five years ago in Northwest Alabama that I'm inviting you all to come on down and serve. There's a waiting list to pay money to serve at this camp. It is otherworldly.
It's sold out. People pay money to come to Alabama in the summertime and serve people with disabilities. It's gold, because I think the upending of my life allowed me to see the upside down kingdom more clearly. When I lived into that reality, it broke my heart. But in the breaking, there was a making. This offering came and the same is true in your stories. The breaking of your hearts can make your heart bigger, and it did for me. We founded this camp for families with disabilities, and it is glorious.
Oh my gosh! Gathering a bunch of disabled people together is gold, gold, gold, gold. Wow! It is just a joy to spend my life funding this thing. This camp is totally free to all campers, not to the volunteers. They pay. To the campers, they come for totally free. If you happen to want one of these fabulous sweatshirts I'm wearing, all the money doesn't go to me. It goes to camp. I full-time fund the camp and do a little speaking here and there to pay for this thing, but it's not to me. It's not to me.
Books, sweatshirts, it all goes to support this crazy camp. But here's what we're doing, people, we are corporately through our camp disrupting the myth, the lie, the idol that joy only comes in a pain-free life. Yeah! Because these people know too much. They know life is hard and painful and not okay, but we can still live with joy in it because we have today. We can celebrate today. We are together today. We made it to Alabama in the summertime today and survived, and we could live into this moment.
We don't know what the future has. It's not great for most of our friends living with disabilities. The future is not coming up roses, but we can still live well in this moment and disrupt that lie together. We have two books, Hope Heals, which my husband and I wrote. That's really our story, that's black and white, that's a story of what happened. And then our second book, Suffer Strong, is the lessons that we've learned to date. So much of life is about learning lessons, isn't it, ladies? And waking up to what God is doing in our assignments.
I do believe we are assigned to our lives. And because we are assigned our lives, we are called to steward our stories, to leverage our lives for what matters most. We don't have time to sit around and cry about what's lost. You are not the victim of your story, please. You are the overcomer of your story because of God's power. It is His distinct power in our weakness. He has equipped you for whatever you are walking through today.
If you would've told 25 year old Katherine that she would become severely disabled after a massive stroke and nearly die and live her life in a wheelchair and blah, blah, blah, I would have told you I can't do that. There's absolutely no way I can do that. No. Please. Oh my word. And yet here I am 14 years later doing that. Here's what's so cool. As a little girl, I would line up little dolls in my closet. Here I am, little eight year old Katherine lining up dolls. I would make passionate speeches about Jesus and several of my dolls got saved.
I would just share this truth and I wanted them to know. I think deep down I knew I would spend my life, seriously spend my life talking to real dollies. Listen, I had no idea that would involve a wheelchair and pain and suffering like nothing I could have imagined, but the Lord's purposes will not be for dead. What He has called us to, He is faithful and will do. I love the truth of Ephesians 4:1, that we are called to live lives worthy of the callings that we have received. I believe my life is a calling.
I'm living on mission and I call you to do the same. Do not miss the miracle right in front of your face. You are here today for a reason. God has purposed your story. I love the truth of Psalm 16:6, that the boundary lines have fallen in pleasant places. You probably heard that beautiful passage. The boundary lines have fallen in pleasant places. These boundary lines are keeping us safe and enabling us to... Ooh. Caught it. Wow. Impressive. I still got coordination in one hand.
Allow us to live well right here within the boundary lines of our story. This little lot, a lot was assigned to me to cherish, to champion, to steward, to leverage every day of my whole life. I deeply love the truth of Galatians 6:4-5 in the Message translation. Do we have it for them? I can't see that screen, but thank you, Jesus, I know it by heart. Listen up, "make a careful exploration of who you are and the work that you've been given and sink yourself into that.
Don't be impressed with yourself. Don't compare yourself with anybody else. Each of you must take responsibility for doing the creative best that you can with your life." Who has chills? Me! Oh my gosh! I have that chill up your spine. Take responsibility for doing the creative best that you can with your own life. Y'all, we are called to be creative in our stories. If we are to live well in this unique assignment that God has given to us, that may involve some creativity.
But do you know what is awesome about some creativity applied to our story? We can do that. When suffering hits the story, as it does so much, we tend to turn off our brains, don't we? It's survival mode. It's not thinking through what God might be doing in our incredible story. It's like, I got to live through this nightmare. I got to put one foot in front of the other. I can't handle it. I'm not saying you shouldn't do that for a while. Take all the time you need. I took five years to come out of the hole.
Five years, people. Five years to even wake up to what God was doing in my story. I'm giving you permission to wrestle and be lost and confused and hopeless. But when you come out of that, God can send you to go and tell and do something different with every day for the rest of your life. It's so beautiful. Live on assignment creatively also means that regardless of the constraints, you can flourish within them. You can get creative, I believe, and something new is born.
Hello! It's Jesus himself, the suffering Savior, flourished through the ultimate constraint. Do you know what that was? Death. Jesus himself defied every earthly constraint. Born into a human body, constrained by that for sure, but then defied the constraint by rising. That is our opportunity, ladies, is to flourish within our hard constraints and our stories. I think nothing could be more important than to persevere through everything we are going through with the hope of what is to come one day.
I would to pray for y'all. I would love to pray Hebrews 12. It's some of my very favorites. That we could never ever go weary, but instead, persevere with everything we're going through, which is so much. Will you pray with me? "Father, it is a joy to be in Tulsa, Oklahoma with these ladies this morning. Jesus, we cry out to you. No doubt, every single woman in this room is going through some hard stuff, some suffering, some pain of some kind. Most have invisible wheelchairs. Lord, comfort, comfort and sustain every woman here.
Give them a deep, deep peace. Dare I say, give them joy. Let them rebel with joy. Let them wake up to their secret weapon, their superpower that is joy in the story. Father, I pray Hebrew 12, since they are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let them throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangled and run with perseverance the race marked out before. May they fix their on you, Jesus, the author and perfecter of their faith.
Who for the joy set before Him endured the cross, scorning and shamed and is now seated at the right hand of God the Father. May they consider Him who endured such opposition from sinful man so that they themselves will never grow weary or lose heart. Amen, Jesus." Thank you, ladies, so much. It is a blessing to be with you today. No, no, glory to God. No, no. Y'all are sweet. God bless you. Glory goes to God.
Roger Marsh: Amen. What an incredible presentation from a remarkable woman of God. I'm Roger Marsh, and you just heard the conclusion of an inspiring presentation delivered by Katherine Wolf right here on Dr. James Dobson's Family Talk. The presentation was recorded in Tulsa at an Extraordinary Women's Conference. To find out more about the group that we call eWomen, just visit ewomen.net. Katherine made some very poignant points during her presentation today.
Not the least of which was pointing out the lie that joy only comes in a pain-free life. Not only has Katherine found that not to be true, as she has found joy in the midst of her suffering, but the Bible undermines that myth over and over again. For example, in Philippians 4:4, Paul says, "Rejoice in the Lord always." I will say it again. Rejoice. If joy really is the secret weapon of the Christian, let's practice using it every day, regardless of our circumstances, and especially in those moments when you'd be inclined to take the opposite approach.
I think of myself in traffic or when I'm cut off driving on the freeway. Well, speaking of joy, doesn't Hope Heals Camp, which was founded by Katherine and her husband Jay, sound like a great time? The camp is a week long experience and a year round community, offering resources, rest, and relationships to families affected by disabilities. You can find out more about Katherine, her books, and Hope Heals Camp when you visit drjamesdobson.org/broadcast today.
That's drjamesdobson.org/broadcast. Or give us a call at (877) 732-6825. Well, that's all the time we have for today. Thanks again for joining us and be sure to listen again next time for another encouraging God honoring program right here on Dr. James Dobson's Family Talk.
Announcer: This has been a presentation of the Dr. James Dobson Family Institute.
Dr. James Dobson: This is James Dobson again. As we close today's program, I just want to thank so many of you out there who make this broadcast possible with your contributions. I want to tell you how much your generosity is appreciated.