Summary:
- Personal Experience and Faith: Lea shares her personal journey through multiple hardships, including the loss of her house, her son’s addiction, and her mother’s cancer. She emphasizes how these experiences have deepened her intimacy with God and strengthened her faith.
- Permission to Feel and Wrestle with God: The discussion touches on the importance of embracing emotions and being transparent with God. Lea explains that acknowledging and wrestling with feelings of grief and suffering can lead to experiencing God’s peace and presence more profoundly.
- Community and Support: Lea highlights the significance of community support during times of grief. She shares examples from her own life where friends and community members provided crucial support, reinforcing the idea that healing often involves others helping to “unravel our grave clothes.”
- Message of Hope and Redemption: Throughout the conversation, Lea and I (Sherrie) underscore the message of hope in Christ. We stress that while grief and suffering are inevitable, turning towards God and trusting in His plan of redemption can lead to healing and transformation.
Podcast Intro:
My guest is Lea Turner, a wife, a mom to 5 children, she’s an author and a grief coach. When you hear just a little bit of her story today, you’ll see how much experience she’s had in the area of grief and it will explain why she’s the perfect one to come alongside grieving hearts and help them navigate the seasons of life when we live with loss and uncertainty.
A quick overview of her grief journeys (with an S – plural) and within a very short time period of 3 years it included death, cancer, a house fire where she and her family lost absolutely everything including the family dog, her son battling addiction, shattered dreams, heart surgery, and just recently her mom’s cancer journey has shifted and is adding yet more uncertainty for the days ahead.
Our conversation focuses on Lea’s book, The Freedom to Feel: Finding God in Grief and Trauma, Her book goes into greater depth with regard to what we discussed plus additional topics that we didn’t have time to touch on.
I really picked around in Lea’s pain and she was gracious enough to answer every question. She explains how her relationship with God has evolved through each season of loss, emphasizing the importance of building a foundation with God to weather difficult times. She shares a story about a pastor’s advice that spending time with God is preparation for future hardships.
Lea highlights the importance of embracing feelings of grief and suffering rather than running from them and she explains that acknowledging and feeling pain allows the Holy Spirit to provide comfort, contrasting this with numbing behaviors like alcohol or excessive activities. She also discusses the importance of not becoming a victim of grief, suggesting that continually dwelling on hard stories can trap a person in their suffering. Instead, she recommends balancing necessary daily responsibilities with the need to process emotions and seek God’s guidance.
I hope you enjoy this conversation as much as I did as we discussed the hope and transformation that comes from a relationship with God. All that Lea shared is very encouraging but I especially loved the reminder when she said that as believers we lament, meaning we grieve with hope.
I’d say that Lea’s over all message (and I whole heartedly agree with it) is the importance of continually turning towards God. Even in the midst of grief and heartache we can count on God’s character and presence to remain constant through every crashing wave of any storm we endure.
Let’s listen in for encouragement and a reminder that God has a plan of redemption for every form of suffering we endure.
Live Loved and Thrive!
Podcasts Related to this Topic:
Widows, Grief and Finding Hope with Anne-Marie Lockmyer: https://alifeofthrive.com/2024/02/14/widows-grief-and-finding-hope-with-anne-marie-lockmyer/
Life and Hope After an Accidental Death, with Jennifer Eikenhorst: https://alifeofthrive.com/2023/07/18/life-and-hope-after-an-accidental-death-with-jennifer-eikenhorst/
Hope Deferred with Lainie Stubblefield – Marriage and Children – https://alifeofthrive.com/2022/10/26/hope-deferred/
Connect with Lea:
Website: leaturner.com
IG: @leagjturner
FB: facebook.com/aheartatrest
Newest book: The Freedom to Feel: Finding God in Grief and Trauma
Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Freedom-Feel-Finding-Midst-Trauma/dp/B0D2PGK11T/ref=monarch_sidesheet
Bio:
Lea Turner is a heartfelt, empathetic writer and speaker who longs to meet and encourage us in our pain. Joyfully broken through three years of her family struggling with trauma and loss, including death, cancer, losing everything to a house fire, drug addiction, loss of a dream, and heart surgery has made her a reluctant expert on grief. Lea is a soulful listener and wisdom seeker, passionate about walking with grieving people through trauma, pain, and loss. She lives in Mississippi with her husband and five kids making her a northern girl stuck in a southern world.
