Confronting the Fear of Suffering: Finding Faith in Uncertain Times [Podcast Transcript]

Title: Confronting the Fear of Suffering: Finding Faith in Uncertain Times [Podcast Transcript]

Podcast Date: November 4, 2025

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Description

• Struggling with the fear of suffering, control, and uncertainty? In this powerful episode, Heather Creekmore dives deep into why so many women wrestle with the need to avoid pain—especially when it comes to body image, health, and the quest for comfort. Discover the spiritual roots that drive our desire for control and comfort, learn how suffering can actually point us to God rather than away from Him, and hear the inspiring true story of how suffering transformed Tara’s life.

  Heather doesn’t shy away from tough questions: Are we trusting in our own ability to avoid discomfort, or are we open to what God can do through seasons of pain? With honest reflection, practical encouragement, and biblical wisdom, this episode explores how surrender can play a vital role in your faith journey—and how God can use suffering for a greater purpose.

  Plus, Heather shares resources to support you, details about the upcoming In His Image conference in Dallas, and ways to connect for ongoing encouragement.

  Ready to find hope in unexpected places and finally stop fearing suffering? Hit play and discover the freedom that comes with faith beyond your circumstances.

  Mentioned in this episode:

  • Improve Body Image resources

  • In His Image conference (Dallas, Texas)

  • Previous episodes about the fear of rejection and body image.

  Connect with Heather and the team by visiting: www.improvebodyimage.com and find out how you can get coaching, join one of our courses or groups, check out Heather's books and Bible reading plans, and so much more.

   

  Discover more Christian podcasts at lifeaudio.com and inquire about advertising opportunities at lifeaudio.com/contact-us.

Transcript

Heather Creekmore [00:00:02]:
Life Audio. Hey there, friend. Heather Creekmore here. Thanks for listening to the Compare to youo podcast today. This is the show for you if you're a woman who wants to grow in her faith and start thinking more about what God made her for instead of how God made her body. Yep, that's me. That was my story. And that's why I do this podcast and write books and do coaching and run courses because I want to help you be free from obsessing over your size, your weight, your appearance, your aging, whatever, so that you can live in the purpose that God made you for and feel alive in the way he created you.

Heather Creekmore [00:00:45]:
Today we are in a series called Fear Free Fall. And today's episode may be the most difficult. Oh, yeah, that's a good way to sell it, Heather. But today we're going to talk about the fear of suffering. And this comes up a ton in my body image coaching, right? Because one of the reasons why we all say we have to follow a specific eating plan, why we have to quote, unquote, stay healthy, is because we don't want disease, we don't want to suffer, right? And that's perfectly reasonable, rational, like, I'd never argue with that. No one wants to suffer. But the theology behind our fear of suffering is something we need to assess a little deeper. We need to ask ourselves, am I trusting in God to provide, take care of me, or am I trusting in my own ability to control things so that I can have a suffering free life? Which, by the way, friend, I don't know if you've tried it, but it's pretty difficult, right? It's pretty difficult to control all the variables and make everything come out just right.

Heather Creekmore [00:01:57]:
Suffering is kind of an inevitable part of living in this sinful, fallen world. And so if you are terrified of suffering or even if you just kind of worry about it every now and then, like, I don't want to suffer, I don't want to feel bad, I don't want to hurt, I don't want. It could even be rejection like we talked about before. I don't want to feel anything that makes me feel bad. So I want to live a life free from those negative, as we call them. They're not really negative, they're helpful. But from those feelings, this episode is for you, my friend. Hey, I'm going to be in Dallas, Texas in just a couple weeks at the In His Image conference.

Heather Creekmore [00:02:38]:
I'd love to meet you there. You can find a link in the show notes to sign up and I would love for you to go to improvebodyimage.com because I got lots of great stuff for you, including 10 days of encouragement. Sign up now so you don't miss out on anything. And you can be encouraged regularly. Who doesn't need that? Okay, okay, okay. Why are we afraid of suffering? Yikes. Well, no one likes suffering, okay? So please don't hear this as any sort of masochistic. You should be looking for ways to suffer, right? We're not into this asceticism, you know, suffer to show yourself more holy and more pious.

Heather Creekmore [00:03:24]:
That is not what we're talking about here. Here we're talking about how most of us are afraid to suffer because it confronts one thing. It confronts in us our desire to trust ourselves and our own abilities more than to trust in God. It confronts in us a longing that we have deep down for control, for comfort, and for certainty. And those are the three c things we're going to look at and talk about today. Control, comfort, and certainty. And underneath the surface of our fear of suffering, there's something spiritual happening. It's deep.

Heather Creekmore [00:04:19]:
And so that's where we're going today. Let's start with the first C. Control. Oh, friend, we love control, don't we? I mean, I used to joke all the time about that Dr. Seuss book. I think it's called if I Ran the Zoo. And that was just a reference I made all the time. If I was in control, if I ran the zoo, everything would be like this.

Heather Creekmore [00:04:39]:
We like to control, right? We like to know that I control my own destiny. I chose this and I get this as an outcome, like, oh, that's a lovely way to think you want to live. But that's not what trusting Jesus is all about. And so when we suffer, when we do things the way, you know, we thought we should do things in order to get the outcome we expected. And when that doesn't happen, it rattles us. Maybe it was a relationship. Maybe you thought you did everything right. You were trying really hard.

Heather Creekmore [00:05:19]:
You thought you were marrying the right guy, thought you were dating the right guy, and it didn't go as planned. And it hurts. It hurts so bad. It hurts like hell. And you suffer. And you remember in that suffering that you're not in charge. You can only do your part and you didn't have control over the whole thing. Or maybe, and I've had this story show up with clients, and maybe you were tightly in control of every single thing you ate.

Heather Creekmore [00:05:56]:
You were the clean eater, expert nutrition eater. I don't think that's a thing. But you were trying to do it all right around food. You followed all the rules, and you were just going to be so healthy because you were eating right. And then you still get the diagnosis. Well, that's not fair. You did everything quote, unquote, right? Why would you get the diagnosis? Shouldn't all those people that weren't doing everything right get the diagnosis? How is that just. And it kind of questions, calls into question, like what you believe about God and fairness and equity and justice.

Heather Creekmore [00:06:37]:
And it's none of its grace, right? Or is it all grace? I think that's what suffering teaches us, right? It reminds us, oh, friend, you are not in charge. You're not in charge. You can plan, you can prepare, you can try to protect yourself. But suffering might interrupt all of that. Suffering exposes our vulnerability. And it is terrifying because suffering challenges this belief that we really want to hold onto. And the belief is, if I can just get it right, if I can follow the rules, if I can do all the right things, then I can avoid pain. But then when the pain comes anyway, it feels like betrayal.

Heather Creekmore [00:07:25]:
Now who's betraying us, right? It kind of feels like God's betraying us, right? We're actually a little mad at him if we stop and think about it, because we kind of had this deal, okay? It wasn't a deal that he gave us, but a deal maybe we created in our head where it's like we got, I'm going to do this, this, and this, and then you're going to do this, this, and this. And that's a theological challenge we've got to work through. Like, wait a second, is that the deal I had with God? Where is that in the Bible? Where did I come up with that? But it feels like betrayal. And we actually have to work through it, not as betrayal, but as something we got wrong theologically. We have to work through it to understand that, oh, goodness gracious, God is sovereign. I. I am not. I was never in as much control as I thought I was.

Heather Creekmore [00:08:19]:
And perhaps things have gone awry. Perhaps part of this suffering journey is for me to remember that. And so in that way, my suffering might bring me closer to God because I have the opportunity to see God who for who he really is. Not a magic vending machine where I do my part. I put the quarters in and then the snack comes down, right? No, that God is sovereign and he's bigger, his plans are greater. He's so much more vast than my little finite mind can even imagine. And if he's allowing suffering in my life. It's to grow me, it's to change me.

Heather Creekmore [00:09:03]:
It may be to humble me and maybe to produce other Christlike character in me. Perhaps this suffering is actually for my good because I'm gonna recognize that I'm not in control. Mmm, friend. That's hard. But theologically, right, I think another area where we get suffering wrong. And maybe you were even taught this at church, but. But we tend to believe, even subconsciously, that good things happen to good people and bad things happen to bad people. And it's almost cliche, right? But the question of, like, why do bad things happen to good people? Or why do good things happen to bad people, that trips people up a lot theologically.

Heather Creekmore [00:09:49]:
And I can't. I don't have time today to go into all the nuances of that. I love how Tim Keller just kind of briefly answers that question with, if we had a God that we could always understand and, like, always predict his next move and understand every way he works, like, that wouldn't be a very great God, because if I can understand what he's doing, then he's not big enough, right? But sometimes when suffering comes, we tend to question ourselves. We tend to wonder, like, what did I do wrong? Or we would have, should have, could have ourselves, like, oh, I shouldn't have done this. I shouldn't have this. Oh, what if I hadn't done that? And if I just done that and then this wouldn't happen. And we try to again, go back to control. Like, let me control all the variables in my head and figure out at what point I messed up.

Heather Creekmore [00:10:33]:
And that's why I brought this on myself, right? What did I do wrong? Or is this my fault? Did I do this? What did I do? I remember when I had a miscarriage, it was between my second and my third child. It was a very early miscarriage, in some ways a blessing because I didn't have to have a DNC or go through any of the harder trauma that goes along with having a miscarriage later. It's so hard. But even having an early miscarriage, oh, goodness, there's grief. It hurts. But the day before I had my miscarriage, I decided to get my large Rubbermaid plastic bin that had my next season clothing in it. Like my. I think it was my winter clothes at the time.

Heather Creekmore [00:11:22]:
And it was kind of up on a shelf in my closet. And I do this thing, instead of asking for help. I try to pull the big giant, I don't know, let's call it 50 pound Rubbermaid I pull it out onto my head to help me balance it before throwing it, like kind of bouncing it on the ground. That's how I get something down when I don't want to ask for help. And I had done that the day before I had my miscarriage. Do you know how many times I had the thought, oh, did I have a miscarriage because I pulled that 50 pound Rubbermaid down? Like, I know I didn't have a miscarriage because of that. But our first instinct is to figure out, what did I do wrong? How did I get this wrong? What did I do to cause this? And friend, that's probably not good theology. Now, yes, there are some things that we mess up and actions have consequences.

Heather Creekmore [00:12:12]:
Yes, of course. Right. But I think we need to start shifting from a perspective of control. And it's all up to me. And I create my own destiny to a perspective that's actually more biblical, which is, wait a second here. Like, I do have free will, but God is ultimately in control, right? God is sovereign, I am not. And when I suffer, it's not that God forgot me. It's not punishment for those who are in Christ, right? It's part of my sanctification.

Heather Creekmore [00:12:49]:
This is part of the process by which God's going to grow my faith and my dependence on him. Because when I'm in control and everything's going my way and I decide to do X and then Y happens, right? It reinforces the narrative that I'm in control and it actually weakens my faith because I'm not dependent on God. Then I'm like, oh, no, now I know I can do this. I just keep doing X and Y happens. Do X, Y happens. I'm not depending on him. I'm not growing my faith in him. I'm growing my faith and my trust in myself.

Heather Creekmore [00:13:22]:
And think about Jesus. Jesus suffered. He suffered a lot. He didn't suffer because he failed. He suffered because he was faithful to what he knew he had to do in order to save us. Hebrews 5, 8 says, though he was a son, he learned obedience through what he suffered. We're going to talk about this more right after this quick break. Okay, so what else about suffering? Don't we like, I mean, count the ways, right? There's a lot we don't like about suffering, but here's another one.

Heather Creekmore [00:14:00]:
None of us like suffering because we fear the unknown. And suffering is really unpredictable. We don't know how long it's going to last. We don't know how bad it's going to Be our brains like to run worst case scenarios and our fears, oh goodness, our fears swell in uncertainty, don't they? Like, it is super easy to start spiraling. Like, oh no, this happened. And then if this happens, then this is going to happen. And this, I mean, I remember watching one of my children spiral in this way when he got a bad test grade and the conversation went from failing one, it was a college test that he took in high school. But failing one college exam, that wasn't even going to count for college because he took it in high school and suddenly he was going to be homeless.

Heather Creekmore [00:14:55]:
Like that was how far the spiral took him. He was going to be a homeless guy when he was in his 20s or 30s. And to me as I watch this, as I have this conversation, like, oh, dude, friend, like you failed one test, it is okay, like that grade's not even gonna count for college. Yeah, it's gonna affect your high school grades a little bit. But like you don't get from one failed grade to homelessness. Like there's a couple more steps involved there. And yet, and yet, how many of us do that, right? One thing goes wrong and woo hoo, spiral, oh no, now it's the end of the world as I know it, right? And suffering rattles us in that way because it's much easier to believe. Back to that C word, control.

Heather Creekmore [00:15:43]:
Believe that I'm in control. And so I kind of know what's going to happen because I'm controlling things so tightly. I know how this holiday is going to go because I'm controlling it. I know how today is going to go because I have this great schedule and everything's going to go according to plan. And suffering derails us, right? Even if it's something as simple as sickness, right? I mean, I don't know the covids that have gone around the last couple years, like I had Covid pretty bad. One of those years I was in a lot of pain, like laying on heating pads and I was suffering. It did not feel good. And I remember laying in bed thinking, how long, how long am I not going to be able to do anything? How long am I going to be laying here suffering? Will I ever be able to taste and smell again? We suffer and then we spiral because we're like, oh no, I don't know, I don't know.

Heather Creekmore [00:16:41]:
And what we really need, right, is faith. And real faith actually requires us to trust God without knowing how our stories on earth, these little situations we're in here on earth are going to end. And we can only trust God without knowing how these little stories are going to end. Because we know how the big story ends, right? We know ultimately everything is for his glory and our good. We know he works all things together for good, and that includes our suffering, right? We know he's bigger than it all, but oh, goodness, trust in Him. When things don't go the way we think they're going to go, and we don't know what's going to happen anymore, it's hard for hearts that are trained to crave clarity. But think about this. Psalm 119, 105, says, you, word is a lamp unto my feet.

Heather Creekmore [00:17:32]:
Think about a lamp, right? That's not a ton of light. It doesn't say, your word is a floodlight to my feet, that everything's going to be illuminated. I'm going to see everything, every little detail, Every flea, every crumb, every speck. No, it's just a lamp. You can just kind of see the next spot your foot needs to go. And that's got to be enough because we trust God and we know he is good. What else is going on when we suffer? Well, a lot of us struggle with this fear that we're not sure if God's going to show up in our suffering. Will God meet us there? Will God be there in our suffering? That's a question our hearts ask.

Heather Creekmore [00:18:10]:
We fear suffering because we doubt. We doubt God's goodness. We doubt God's nearness. We wonder where our comfort went and maybe why he's being mean because we're not comfortable anymore. And when our comfort disappears, sometimes we assume that his presence does too. But here's the truth. Scripture shows us thought and suffering. That's where God most often reveals Himself most clearly.

Heather Creekmore [00:18:40]:
Think about Daniel 3, the fiery furnace. God met Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego there, actually in the furnace with them. You think they were suffering like, oh, my goodness, I can't even imagine how afraid I would have been walking in to that fiery furnace. And yet they were obedient, and God met them there. That was suffering though the wilderness, right? God teaches us things in the wilderness, man. We suffer in the wilderness just like those Israelites did. But God showed himself to those Israelites over and over again. And then for Jesus, in the garden of Gethsemane, on the cross, God was with him there, Jesus asks, why have you forsaken me? And Jesus is the only one who really gets to ask that question with accuracy, right? Because God kind of had to turn his face away.

Heather Creekmore [00:19:32]:
To allow Jesus to experience what he experienced, to actually experience hell, right? To walk through hell for those three days and then overcome, victorious, rise again having defeated the grip of sin, hell and death. Right? But Jesus did all that so that when we say, God, why have you forsaken me? We know it's not true. God is with us. He hasn't forsaken us. He hasn't turned his back on us because of what Jesus did. So the question to ask isn't, will God keep me from suffering? The question is, will I remember that God is here in the suffering with me? So we've talked all about, like, the first C word, control, right? But let's dig into comfort. Oh, goodness. We don't like to suffer.

Heather Creekmore [00:20:18]:
We're afraid of suffering because we live in a culture that worships ease. We prize our comfort, our convenience. We believe these are ultimate things. I mean, goodness gracious, I get frustrated if the microwave takes too long to cook something or prime doesn't get me something between three and six in the afternoon when they promised and has to come the next morning. Right? We live in a culture where things are pretty comfortable and pretty easy most of the time. And that can allow us to further feel like deceived into believing that we have a lot of control and that if we're suffering, it's because something got out of our control. Or to say it a different way, suffering might feel like failure. It might feel like something went wrong, Right? But again, biblically, suffering is something that God can use to refine and deepen us.

Heather Creekmore [00:21:22]:
Biblically, suffering can strip away false gods, like the God of image, the God of success, the God of perfection, right? All these things that beckon us to worship them. Like, if you just look better, then everything will go perfect for you. Right? That's kind of the promise of the before and after picture and the after picture. Oh, goodness, what a great life you'll lead after you just lose the weight and get the look, right? Or once you get that job, once you get that title, once you get that home, once you get all the things together, then what a great life you'll lead. And really, the promise of these idols is that we won't suffer, right? We won't be rejected. Yes, but we won't suffer. Life will be great once we get what they promise us. The only problem is idols lie and we worship idols.

Heather Creekmore [00:22:15]:
We're not depending on God, we're not worshiping God. And so suffering can bring us back to that dependence on God where we realize, oh, wait a second, I'M utterly hopeless and helpless without you. Lord, I need you every hour. I need you. God. Goodness. You are in control. I am not.

Heather Creekmore [00:22:36]:
Help me. Romans 5, 3 and 4 says, we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance and endurance, character and character, hope. How in the world can we go from suffering to being more hopeful, like when things are bad? Am I really getting more hopeful now? The only way that works, friend, is that through the suffering, we realize what is really, really important and what we've been wasting time on. Suffering isn't senseless. God can always use it as a sacred space for transformation, for growing your character, for growing your faith, for making you look more like him. Now, again, no one's signing up for suffering, right? Our human view of suffering is it's something that we should avoid at all costs, that we've lost control if we're suffering, that God's not there or that we're being punished for something. But biblically, suffering is an invitation to surrender it all. It's an opportunity to meet God more deeply.

Heather Creekmore [00:24:00]:
It can form, develop, and strengthen our faith. And it's always something God can redeem for eternal good. Suffering isn't the end of the story, but it might be the place where God can rewrite this story. And that's exactly what happened for Tara. So Tara is a part of my team. She's one of my coaches. Tara was my client four years ago, came to me, like many of you do, just really stuck in body image and food stuff and feeling desperate and frustrated. And so she's been on an eating disorder body image recovery journey for almost five years now.

Heather Creekmore [00:24:43]:
And there's been some suffering involved in that. Suffering that I don't know if she expected. I mean, because really, who expects suffering? We don't want suffering. We hope that by curing or fixing those things that are wrong with us, we will avoid suffering. Right? That's our goal. Avoid suffering. Do it right so I don't have to suffer. And yet she's been surprised.

Heather Creekmore [00:25:05]:
So I'm going to read to you her story. Tara says, most of my life had been about avoiding suffering, avoiding anything that made me feel physically or emotionally uncomfortable. Anything that hurt. I was influenced early to believe that hurt wasn't normal. To feel pain was bad. To experience suffering meant something had to be fixed. My parents never spoke these words, but throughout my childhood, in a million different subtle ways, they showed me through constant efforts trying to explain, fix, control, or avoid painful situations, that suffering was something you should always run from and something that surely I could never handle culture, steps right into and does a great job reinforcing this. Our baseline should be happy.

Heather Creekmore [00:25:52]:
After all, it's what we deserve. Anything other than that is unacceptable. And the world is ready to sell you something to achieve and maintain so you can keep that pleasurable life expectation. Oh, and then comes the enemy with that constant berating. He was always reminding me how wrong alone or crazy I was for feeling and experiencing suffering. So when God led me to Heather four years ago, I came believing that normal meant always feeling good or at least okay. And any negative emotions, physical pain, those were bad things. Those were things that had to be fixed.

Heather Creekmore [00:26:36]:
I was the girl who wanted Heather to tell me how I could honor God and get, maintain and sculpt the body of my ideal appearance. All to be the good, obedient servant of the Lord. Of course that's what I thought it meant. Which of course doing this would then make me happy and the torment and pain of the constant body obsession would finally be fixed. My suffering was so acute by the time I met Heather, I was feeling insane from the constant war raging in my mind. I was barely eating to maintain my weight. I would go through weeks of fasting for the Lord, followed by tiny bits of healthy whole foods. I over exercised every day.

Heather Creekmore [00:27:23]:
I pushed through weakness and shakiness, only to break down and binge. And then came the physical pain of bloating, my inability to digest food. And then back to fasting for another cycle to begin. I was trapped. I tried everything and the last plan I had was failing me. Or I was failing is really what I believed. Suffering wasn't new to me. Like all of us, we have a life story filled with it.

Heather Creekmore [00:27:51]:
Starting in my teen years, I struggled with the black hole of depression, suicidal thoughts to my struggle with alcohol and drug addiction, which in my early 20s I went into recovery for. And then in my 30s, I walked through the fear of death as my 18 month old baby boy battled cancer for five years. God was with me through them all, preparing me. He had begun to show me what pain for a purpose meant. But it wasn't until I entered my 40s, using all the experiences of my life, that I could finally, in such a broken state, hear the truth. God sent Heather to disciple me. The suffering he was going to use to take me to a whole new level with him. A deeper intimacy than I could have ever imagined.

Heather Creekmore [00:28:39]:
Of course, I didn't know that when with shaking hands, I hit send on my desperate email to Heather asking for help. The truths and the freedom she opened my mind and heart to have forever changed my view of suffering. Romans 8:28 had become an anchor for me in my life. But it wasn't until going through this journey with Heather that I truly understood, not just with my head, but with my heart, what it actually means to suffer. Of course, this journey brought many variations of suffering. From letting go of my wants and desires for my body and my ideal image. It came with wrestling and crying out to God over my changing body as it healed, dying to self. Oh, that hurts.

Heather Creekmore [00:29:21]:
Turning from constant thoughts of me to thoughts of him. There were so many emotions, fear, control, grief, that I walked through with Heather, the Holy Spirit. Emotions that she graciously sat with me in and showed me how I could stay and I wouldn't be consumed by them. I wouldn't drown in the pain. And our good God, who knows deeper pain than any of us ever will, is always there for us, right in it. For the first time, I didn't run from, avoid, or try to fix the pain. I stayed. And I wasn't alone like the devil had convinced me I would be.

Heather Creekmore [00:30:00]:
I had a wise counselor in Heather. Sent by God and his Holy Spirit is something tangible I could start to sense in the midst of it all. And so in the suffering, a deeper kind of trust was built. The kind where I could actually see, touch and feel God's presence working in me. The kind that I could begin to believe he was right there with me, experiencing it all with me. The kind that told me I could trust him far more than I could trust myself, far more than I could trust what I knew I saw or what I was told or what culture demanded. It was the kind of suffering that made me dive into his arms daily, sometimes hourly, sometimes by the minute. The kind of suffering that made me seek out what his love really was, what the cross and the resurrection really meant, and how it really does change everything.

Heather Creekmore [00:30:43]:
The kind of suffering this body image battle brought me to. The kind of suffering that helped me really live through and believe. Romans 8:28 is a promise was the suffering I faced as Heather spoke truth in love when she helped me see my sin, when I came face to face with my own idolatry and my pride. Two sins I never believed were a problem for me. I didn't worship golden calves. I loathed almost everything about myself. There was no pride there. And actually, for the first time, I allowed myself, with my wise counselor, to feel the weight of my sin, to accept, acknowledge and see it, to allow it to break my heart.

Heather Creekmore [00:31:20]:
For the heart of Jesus, I broke. It was the kind of suffering, the most unexpected kind of suffering that changed everything. To have even considered to allow myself to feel that weight of sin before. Walking through this journey with Heather, getting to know what God truly says about me, what his love truly means, the weight of it would have crushed me. But on this journey with a guide and with God and community of women who came along beside me, my eyes were opened. And for the first time, instead of the weight of suffering crushing me as I always feared it would, it freed me. It was pain for a purpose. God used it.

Heather Creekmore [00:31:57]:
He used it to encounter me. He used it to love on me. He used it to connect me to Himself and so many beautiful women. He used it for good. Romans 8:28. Most importantly, he used it to help me know him more and love him more. And in turn, I can now love myself and others in a way I never understood before. As Tim Keller explains in his book Hope, in times of fear, the cross and resurrection is the great reversal.

Heather Creekmore [00:32:25]:
I understand this now. I feel like I'm living through this. As I continue to journey with Heather and other women, walking through this process of renewal and freedom. Jesus saves us through weakness, giving up power, enduring the deepest suffering, and succumbing to what seems like defeat. But he triumphs, not despite the weakness and loss of power, but because of it and through it. So we have a way of looking at and living in this world with all its degrees of suffering, that turns cultures, rules, expectations and beliefs about suffering on their heads. And for me, this stripped away my fear of suffering. Of course, it's still hard and I would like to not endure it.

Heather Creekmore [00:33:11]:
I will continue to pray for strength and his presence to get through it and trust that if it's happening, then it's in God's will and he will use it for good. Even if I never truly understand or know what that good is this side of heaven. So when suffering comes, as it will, until Christ returns, now I truly understand how perfect love does cast out all fear. First John 4:18. Oh, friend. I hope Tara's story has maybe encouraged you. If you are in the midst of suffering and you want someone to hold your hands or tell you it'll be okay, or pray with you or show you maybe something underneath the surface you haven't seen yet. If it's there, hey, we'll do that for you.

Heather Creekmore [00:33:59]:
Tara will do that for you. I will do that for you. Our team is here for you. Reach out. You don't have to suffer alone. And God will use you're suffering. Hey, thanks for listening. I hope something today has helped you stop comparing and start living.

Heather Creekmore [00:34:15]:
Bye. Bye. The Compare To Podcast is proud to be part of the Life Audio Podcast Network. For more great Christian podcasts, go to lifeaudio. Com.

Disclaimer: This transcript is AI-generated and has not been edited for accuracy or clarity.