Natalie Epps – Beautifully You

Natalie chose to walk the road of grief and loss by turning some of her thoughts, lessons, and hardships into a journal called Beautifully You. We talk about the challenge of not becoming bitter while battling the darkness, loneliness, and depression of losing the very simple functions of blinking, smiling, hearing, and speaking normally.

During this time, Natalie fell into a moment of despair. She felt like she hit a brick wall with all of her efforts of praying, thinking, wanting to be free of her physical ailments. Feeling at the end of her rope, not having an answer of when she would be free of the prison of a body, Natalie cried and fell into her husband’s arms.

The profound reminder her husband gave her is that there is nothing we can or cannot do that takes away what Jesus did on the cross for us and it is ok to sometimes feel mad, sad, trapped, or without hope.

That pivotal moment released Natalie to be ok with being not ok. She realized the decision was hers to keep going.  Even though there were days where she gave up again. She pressed on and chose to believe that one day things would be ok. And her deeper faith, of knowing God is good regardless of our circumstances, sustained her.

If you’re looking for a hopeful, inspirational moment from this episode, get ready. Natalie changed my perspective and gave me a renewed sense of hope when she told me about a time she was in church praying and weeping for the loss of her father. She was sent a revelation of Jesus weeping alongside her and also seeing and feeling the vision of Jesus celebrating along with her. This revelation was a comfort that showed Natalie that Jesus feels our humanity, even in His holiness. Oh, to be reminded that we aren’t alone even in the most barren times! Jesus is right here, weeping as we are weeping and rejoicing as we are rejoicing.

We talk about allowing a moment, a hardship, a difficulty to change us. To learn something about ourself but also about God.

And we also talk about the importance of rest. Human rest. Meaning, sometimes, it’s ok to take a valium after surgery and sleep off a difficult day.

But when it comes to getting better, we have a responsibility to heal. Natalie shares with us the wisdom of being aware of the hard times, choosing to learn from them, and having a story to share that can help others. We figured out that this may just be the key to hope during that tough time!

And for Natalie, healing did come! She will tell you that her healing is a different definition than what she believed but she does claim healing in her life.  What I love about Natalie, though, is that she hasn’t forgotten the lessons that God has taught her in her darkest time. She has a new appreciation for grief, and a new understanding of how God makes all things new for us here on earth.

 

We talk about two of my favorite chapters in her book,  titled Honey I Shrunk my Dreams and The Responsibility to Heal…two very motivational truths for people who are dealing with especially tough times. The first one: God doesn’t want us to abandon the dreams that have been put in our heart just because where we are at feels small. And the second: Being stuck in our hurts can cause us to turn a blind eye to the healing that God has already provided in our lives and we have a responsibility in our mind to choose, “Yes!” to God’s healing.

You’ll get a lot of comfort from this episode. Especially knowing that once we take on the comfort from God, we have then the ability to comfort others. We can be thankful for this because of the lessons we have learned in our hard times.

I hope the position of your heart is open to shift because there’s much richness to be found from Natalie in this episode.