Today we kick off 2023 with my dear friend, Susie Larson!
Join me in this part one of two episodes as Susie talks about her book, Fully Alive. Susie points out that in order for a person to heal physically, a person must also heal spiritually and emotionally. Everything about our health is connected and for true health to be achieved, all aspects of the person must be addressed.
She also shares some of her personal traumas that affected her health and healing journey. There is so much to learn from this discussion as we begin 2023.
Connect with Susie Larson :
https://www.susielarson.com/
Suggested Resource Links:
Your donations power our podcast's mission to support cancer patients with hope, insights, and resources. Every contribution fuels our ability to uplift and empower. Join us in making a lasting impact. Donate now! 🌟
Today we kick off 2023 with my dear friend, Susie Larson!
Join me in this part one of two episodes as Susie talks about her book, Fully Alive. Susie points out that in order for a person to heal physically, a person must also heal spiritually and emotionally. Everything about our health is connected and for true health to be achieved, all aspects of the person must be addressed.
She also shares some of her personal traumas that affected her health and healing journey. There is so much to learn from this discussion as we begin 2023.
Connect with Susie Larson :
https://www.susielarson.com/
Suggested Resource Links:
Your donations power our podcast's mission to support cancer patients with hope, insights, and resources. Every contribution fuels our ability to uplift and empower. Join us in making a lasting impact. Donate now! 🌟
Hi, I'm Ivelisse Page and thanks for listening to the Believe Big podcast, the show where we take a deep dive into your healing with health experts, a integrative practitioners biblical faith leaders, and cancer thrivers from around the globe. Welcome to today's episode on the Believe Big podcast. My name is Ivelisse Page, and today we are gonna step out of the physical side of healing practices and do a special two part episode on the role that our emotional health has on our physical health. You are in for a treat because my guest today is a dear friend of mine and one of the most incredibly, godly women I know, Susie Larson. Susie is a national speaker, bestselling author, and the host of the Daily Talk show, Susie Larson Live, heard on the Faith Radio Network with over 3.5 million downloads. Susie has written, are you ready for this, 19 books. I love it! And many articles. She has been a guest on Focus on the Family, Family Life Today, as well as many other social media and media outlets. Susie's passion is to see people everywhere awakened to the value of their soul, the depth of God's love, and the height of their calling in Christ Jesus. Welcome Susie to the show.
Susie Larson:So honored to be with you Ivelisse. Thank you for having me. You're one of my favorite people too, so what an honor to be with you.
Ivelisse Page:Aw. Well, our listeners are always interested in discovering what our guest favorite health tip is, and I know you have many, but can you share one of them with us?
Susie Larson:Wow, I almost couldn't put it into one thing. I feel like my morning, quiet time, my workout plan, going to bed at a consistent time, and of course diet and hydration. Those are all really important things for me, and they make a very big difference in my life. So sorry, I can't really boil it down. If I had to boil it down, it would be time with the Lord, because from there he'll tell you what you need, what you're missing, what you might need to add to your rhythm. And that changes from season to season, how we have to be so in tune with our bodies. So, sorry, I can't boil it down. Normally I'm an overachiever. But.
Ivelisse Page:You are. Well, I love that because it ties into what we're talking about. You know, so many times we're focused on the physical side of healing, and especially with what we do with Believe Big, but our emotions and our spiritual life has such a huge impact in our physical healing. And so today, I wanted to focus on your book Fully Alive. That is my, absolute, and I'm not just saying because you're in front of me, but my absolute favorite book on the mind, body and soul connection. And then we're gonna have you back on to share your personal story of wholeness that have occurred over the last two years. So, let's get started. You say that Fully Alive is a book you never planned to write. Why so?
Susie Larson:You know, it goes in so deep to exactly as you said, the emotional connection to our bodies. I really thought not that I'd achieved these lessons, but I thought I had learned them. My backstory is I contracted Lyme disease as a young mom during my pregnancy, and I battled ferociously. I was very sick with Lyme for about seven years, and then for about 20 years, I managed. A handful of times a year I couldn't get out of bed. But other than that, I was a fitness instructor. I was very focused on doing my part and then asking God to do what he would do and just trying to get through it and manage life around that. But then about seven years ago, I had a massive relapse and, the book really was the fruit out of that. But what happened was, if I could just give you context, and it's kind of cramming a lot into a short amount of time, but just so people understand where I'm coming from. I grew up in a large family. I grew up in a denomination where I knew God was real. But I didn't really know Jesus was accessible. You know? I mean, I had a sense of God's presence. I absolutely knew he was real. I was a people pleaser. And when I was about nine years old, I suffered a sexual trauma at the hands of some boys in our neighborhood. Well, that opened a canyon of fear insecurity, self contempt, and I didn't tell anybody. I didn't know what to do with what had happened. And then about a year later, I'm just 10 years old, four feet tall, walking home from school. And I was jumped by a different group of boys and beat up real bad. And they laughed wildly as they punched me and pulled fistfuls of hair kicked me. And now in my adult mind, I know they were high on something cuz they had this crazed look and they just, for sport, were beating up this little girl and they walked away when they were done with me laughing. And I might, I had a fat lip and scratched a face and snarled hair, but I got up from that moment, and I heard in my ear, I can get you anytime, anywhere and God will never stop me. So I'm pregnant with my third son. I'm on bedrest for six months with this precious little baby, and the doctors let me get up one time just to see if I was okay to get up. And I met my old college roommates for lunch. I was super careful. It was a fall day. I was in bed by night cuz I was contracting again. But two weeks from that outing my face started to go numb and, and my short term memory started to do funky things and I was having numbing down my arms and dizziness and, body pain and fatigue and all those things. And I couldn't believe I had three more months to go on this pregnancy that these were overlapping crises. So coming to Christ in, like in eighth, ninth grade, I was super passionate about God, but I didn't have the undergirding of a really solid biblical foundation. So by this point I really didn't know why I was a"have not", why my friends had health, they had wealth, and I had neither. And I had used up most of my friend favors on the six months of bedrest. So the fact that there were these overlapping crises was very traumatic for me. So once my son was born, it was a year later that I'd found out that deer tick, that one day that I was up latched on, deposited that bacteria took off basically, and ravaged my health. And, so it fed into my ear again. I can get to anytime, anywhere. And it just felt true and it felt like the enemy was orchestrating scenarios to reinforce the lie. And again, I didn't have enough of a foundation to really challenge that so much. I dealt with a lot of fear, a lot of anxiety, and I fought hard for my health. And so even though there was fruit in my life and I had a passion for God and he was using me in different areas, the seven years ago, that moment in the bathroom, I was getting ready to head to the radio station and I knew that the inflammation is starting to rise, cuz again, it would happen several times a year, but it came surging in heavier doses. And in the bathroom that day, my whole head went numb, my neck went numb, my esophagus spasmed. Like when I looked down, everything knotted up in my throat and in my esophagus and my arms went numb. And then the pressure in my head was like someone was turning a vice. Like I thought my head was gonna break from the pain. And I'm like, No, no, no, no, no, no, no. Please God, no. I just thought, not at this age. I've been fighting for so long and trying to navigate with a good attitude. Please don't make me go through this again. And I hear the whisper in my spirit,"the storms reveal the lies we believe and the truths we need". And I'm like, What? And it really, Ivelisse, if you could peel the sky back in the bathroom that day, it was like a chaotic, supernatural battle is what it felt like. Because the fear, the panic, the dread, the despair, the disappointment that God was letting me go through this again. But I hear that,"the storms reveal the lies we believe and the truths we need". And I'm like, What? What's the lie that I believe? And that came thundering in my ear. I can get to you anytime, anywhere. God will never stop me. And the Lord said, that's the lie and you've lived with it your whole life. It is not true that he can get to you anytime, anywhere. It is not true that he's had open access, Susie. You don't know what I've prevented in your life. You don't even have any idea what I've provided in your life. No, He said you've believed this and it's time to face it down. I'm not gonna let you lose. But I have to let you fight. And that began this journey that I never wanted, but I wouldn't trade it now because I started to see that there were things shoved in the basement of my soul, unresolved traumas and hardships. And when anybody who battles long term illness or severe acute illness, it's a trauma, it's a second trauma. There's the physical trauma, then there's the emotional trauma. And, I did not realize the connection. And because it affected my brain so, I'm a live talk radio host and an author, at this point, I was having trouble spelling very basic words. I was putting wrong words in my sentences and trying to cover up for it on live talk radio. I'm writing a book and I t h e r e and e i r I couldn't remember which one went where, and I had to google it. I've actually written 20 books. So at this point I think I had what, 15, 16, 17 books under my belt and I had to google the meaning of basic words. It was horrific. And I just couldn't believe it. Well, long story short, apparently people with chronic lyme also have a susceptibility to mold, not being able to process it. And I'd had unknowing repeated exposure to black mold that attacked my brain. So when they did an MRI, they found seven areas of either atrophy like damage or swelling. My MRI looked pretty bad. And, so this journey is I had to get my brain back. I knew neuroplasticity was a thing and so I started to bring on brain scientists. I just started to go for a deeper dive and the Lord really showed me what happens in the soul happens in the cells. And I feel like he brought me back to that place of trauma in a way to go, you're not all the way healed yet. And sometimes we feel like he's pulling us back to punish us or because he refuses to deliver us. But no, it's so he can deliver us, because I know things now I didn't know then. I know God's word, like I didn't know it, then I know Him. And so it wasn't wasted on me so Fully Alive is really a book on internal healing inner healing. And the very physiological, the very direct connection physiologically to the emotions that we feel. So, it's so good to honor the story that God is writing with our lives and to give some room to breathe around those things you're feeling and trust God to lead you to a better place.
Ivelisse Page:Wow! What an incredible, story of God's faithfulness through that. And I love that at those moments where you felt weakest, that He stepped right in and gave you those words. And I wanna go back to something you said. You said"the storms of life reveal the lies we believe and the truths we need".
Susie Larson:Mm-hmm.
Ivelisse Page:And I believe those lies are greater to fight than sometimes the physical illness itself.
Susie Larson:Yeah.
Ivelisse Page:And so, when you heard,"I can get you anytime anywhere and God will never stop me", what practically did you do to stand strong when the enemy whispered those lies? What is some tools that, I know that there are many people listening today that there are lies that are being spewed at them, but what did you do in particular to combat those lies after hearing?
Susie Larson:Good, good question. First of all, I wanna say that prior to that, it was whack-a-mole with fear and anxiety. I was just, trying to deal with it, put it under my feet and do my best. But in this place, when I started to realize, again, the physiological impact, like two of my doctors, I've got three doctors, believers, just brilliant and amazing. But two of them, you know, days apart from each other had said to me, Susie, you've got inflammation off the charts in your body, we can help you with that. But fear opens a door to a cascade, an inflammatory response in your body. You gotta do something about the fear. We're gonna help you with the other stuff, but you gotta help us by doing something about that fear. And so I decided to employ a zero tolerance policy on fear. And I did a deep dive study on fear, it's very interesting. And I know you know this Ivelisse, but, that our brain only operates on one of two fuels scientifically. Scientists, apart from faith, have discovered that our brain is either operating on the fuel of fear or love. Now, don't you think that's amazing how science is slowly catching up with what was written in scripture all those years ago? Because scripture says there's no fear in love. Perfect love, casts out fear. And what was so interesting at one of the points when I had to get labs done, when everything was going crazy in my body, I showed to be extremely dehydrated, but I drink 70 ounces of water a day. I'm like, how is that possible that I'm dehydrated when I'm drinking so much water? And Dr. Troy said, well, when you're in fear, your body your cells even shut down into fight flight. So you don't even get the benefit of your disciplines. So you can be doing all the discipline actions in the world, if you're not dealing with emotions, especially like fear and anxiety, it's like you've got a divided kingdom within you, one foot on the gas, one foot on the break. So I had to go to war with that fear. And I had to just decide every day to turn my back on it and behold faith and say, Lord, I'm terrified. It feels true that I've had to live through everything I fear. It feels true, that I don't enjoy the protections that other people do, but I'm gonna believe that you are good. Your promises are true. You will always make away from me. And then I learned about a neural pathways. When you repeat and repeat and repeat, your body kind of defaults to that mindset. And if it's a negative one, it becomes a super highway. So you don't become less triggerable, you become more triggerable and if you put a"road closed" sign on that neural pathway and say, I'm not gonna have those repetitive thoughts anymore. After about 40 days, your brain deletes the pathway. So the thing is, if you decide I'm gonna pave a new trail, you have to almost take sides against yourself in that the self of you, that part of you that wants to be bent towards destruction because you're so hurt and it just seems easier to expect the worst. You have to go no, no, because God has wired me for life. If you study the human body, it's wired for life. So I put a"road closed" sign there as best as I could, and I imagined a new neuro pathway and my prayer was, God is good. His promises are true, and he's always gonna make a way for me. And Lord I, I pray that you'd show me the ways you have preserved me. And he started to show me the ways, the things that didn't happen to me. And I've spent days in a row thanking God for all the things that didn't happen to me. Because He had a shield of protection around me. And in due time what happens when you blaze a new neuro pathway in your brain when you are triggered because you've been practicing that pathway, when the enemy pokes into you, immediately your thoughts go, oh wait, I've been here before. God is good. His promises are true. For me, it worked. Maybe I just have kind of an analytical mind, but I needed to understand how the body works, how it relates to how God wired us, and that helped me a lot, is to really just deal with my fears daily, moment by moment, and in due time picturing new neural pathways being formed in my brain and really also, getting back to the place of understanding that God is good. Because I think when you walk through enough hardship that becomes up for grabs. In my other book, one that just came out Strong in Battle, I said over and over again daily, we're given an opportunity to either accuse God or trust him and, and the enemy wants it that way. But the more that we can settle on the fact that God is so good and so for us and he wants our best, the easier it'll be for us to navigate these hard times.
Ivelisse Page:You know, out here in Colorado, there's so many beautiful hikes and when you're talking about those neuro pathways, for me, I love seeing pictures of what that looks like. And when you're on a trail that's been there before, it's smooth, it's easy. You know how to get to the top. There's no confusion. Right? But when you are going into the wilderness and there isn't any path. It's hard. You have to think harder and it's more difficult, which is why it's hard sometimes to put that roadblock. I love how you said that, to put that roadblock, road closed, and it's gonna take time for that path to not be easy to follow anymore.
Susie Larson:Exactly.
Ivelisse Page:And the more you follow that new path, the more that it clears the way for the next time.
Susie Larson:Mm-hmm.
Ivelisse Page:I love that image, that you shared. Something else that you talked about in your book is that you learn from a counselor friend about women and men in their late thirties who are dealing with severe anxiety, fear, and you share that the body never forgets the traumatic memories and hurtful events. You say your body remembers, your brain remembers and your soul remembers. Can you talk about that?
Susie Larson:Yeah, I'll first reference the counselor friend. She was saying that not only were they dealing with anxieties and fears, but physiological symptoms that doctors could not diagnose. It is so hard when you're in fear and anxiety and then crazy things start to happen in your body. Again, it's almost like this double trauma going, okay, now something terrible's gonna happen. And even people who aren't hypochondriacs, the enemy wants to get you into a place where you're just turning every which way because the arrows are zinging. And when these doctors would say, I don't find anything. And so then they would go to counseling and, she said, we get them into just the sense of God's presence and His love. And once they reconnect again with the love of the Father, these things untangle. The fears and anxieties and the symptoms just slowly waned and went away. She said 80% of the time, these people who were very wound up with physical symptoms and emotional stress, the love of the Father just solved it. She said once in a while there would be a hidden something that they needed to find, and I just think that's so important. And I didn't read this whole book, but I read parts of it and I'm sure you've heard of it, Dr. van der Kolk I think is his name, the Body Keep Score. But he said, after trauma, the world is experienced through a different nervous system. So while others are showing up and enjoying the moment and being fully present, this is my paraphrase, the person who's been through trauma is just constantly trying to suppress inner chaos. And I can't tell you Ivelisse I mean, how many times I've been in a situation where everybody seems fully present and fully enjoying and my face is going numb, or my vision is starting to blur, or I'm starting to feel a little dizzy, or my knee's weak, and I'm like, No, no, no, no, no, no. I'm trying to engage. I'm trying to listen but I'm like, oh, and it is hard. And, and I think when you walk through certain things, we have an incident and then you have an emotional response to it. It's like they say nerves that fire together, wire together. So you could be awoken in the middle of the night abrubtly to something that was terrifying and you have an emotional response and those things bond together and the enemy knows that. So whatever he can do to create reminiscent traumas, to keep you triggered, keep you bracing for impact. And that's the thing I've been thinking a lot about is after these last three years, I wrote this before the last three years, this released years ago, but even more so now, the enemy's got us locking our elbows, bracing for impact, which keeps us in fight flight. It's like if he can't make you sick with the virus, he's gonna make you sick with fear about the virus and anything else that's going on, socially. He has gotten away with murder. And the thing is, when we have these past traumas, where the nerves have fired together and wired together, and we've not resolved those with God. Those are open door access points for the enemy to re-trigger and re-traumatize, and that's what he wants to do is keep us triggered. But the Lord says, I've not given you a spirit of fear. I've given you a spirit of power, love, and sound mind. In that scripture, the way it breaks down, you think about where people are at right now, reacting in the flesh, grabbing for themselves, seeming to have lost their minds. The opposite of that power, love, and sound mind. Power, the original word is dunamis, where we get the word dynamite. He's given us a spirit of power, explosive power. We can stand against the assaults of the enemy and walk in an otherworldly way that makes people wonder. What we're about. I mean that there's such power in our steps, in our words and our prayers that we are of the kingdom of God. That's power. Love is the agape love. It's the love that lays its life down for another. So in a day when everybody's grabbing for themselves, we know so well that we overcome by the blood of the lamb, the word of our testimony, and we love not our lives, even unto death. Going, even if you were to try to take my life, life is short, eternity is long. I have a long eternal destiny that you cannot touch, and I'm only here for eternity's sake, so I'm gonna live to the fullest and I'm gonna love, well. I'm not gonna let your bitterness, your lawlessness, bait me into bitterness and lawlessness. I'm gonna respond in an opposite spirit because he's given me a spirit of power, love. And then sound mind is exactly that. A reasoning mind. It's war skill. It's an ability to discern what's going on and navigate wisely. What gifts God has given us. But we don't operate in that flow when we're leaving the stuff in our basement unresolved. And that's why, again, God is not allowing a storm to reveal the lie, just to stir us up. It's to show us the truths that we need. Here's that phrase again. The storms reveal the lies we believe and the truths we need. And I'll just say it, and I said it several times in the book, that there are times God knows you're strong enough. He knows when you've been positioned and you're ready and he will allow an overplayed enemy attack only to position you for freedom cuz he knows what's in you. He knows what's hindering you, and he needs you on the field and he wants you full, healed and whole because he's got more for you to do.
Ivelisse Page:Wow. That is even blessing me as I'm hearing you speak, you know, cuz there are so many arrows that are constantly trying to discourage and to bombard us on a daily basis. And that truth is so powerful for people to cling to and to hold onto. And sometimes we feel like, well I already thought I dealt with that. I thought I had uncovered that. You share a another great visual in your book about the farmer having to pull up the boulders from the farmland. Can you share about that story?
Susie Larson:Okay, so because I wrote this a few years ago, I'm hoping I can remember that. But, I remember I was walking through this time where God was just uprooting all kinds of things and one of the things the Lord showed me, he says, you're great unearthing will be the devil's undoing. Because these things were surfacing for me that were really traumatizing and super painful. And when we were out to eat with my sister and her husband, they lived out on a farm at the time, and they, said, our boys do this every summer for the local farmers, is that every season the land gives up the boulders and they move them so they can prepare for a new harvest. Is that what you're talking about?
Ivelisse Page:Yes.
Susie Larson:Is that the story? And I thought that was so helpful to me because I felt like my land was so exposed. It's like I couldn't tidy this up in a nice bow. And I think when you're walking through those great unearthings, because especially in the West, we treasure, put together facade so much. We idolize it, in fact. There's not a lot of room and space for those unearthing and undoings, but that's a sacred space that God has really cordoned off because he's getting ready to do a new thing. But I fear Ivelisse, some of us idolize appearance so much that we'll do everything we can to preempt and get around that thing because we don't wanna deal. And what we don't know is God wants to heal. It's what he's trying to do is allow for some space so that He can do a new thing in you.
Ivelisse Page:A journey towards wholeness will surface issues from the past, kind of like your traumas from when you were younger. What do you say to those listening today who are afraid to face those past hurts?
Susie Larson:That's one of the things that I think the enemy, again, works over time, threatening. It will swallow you whole. But if God's saying it's time, he's with you every step of the way, and I do think it is wise not to isolate. I think it's wise to seek out spiritual mentors, godly friends, a pastor that you trust, a spiritual director or a counselor. I went back to counseling to that friend. I just did a few sessions with her over the course of a few months because quite honestly, I was so hurt and disappointed in God that he allowed it initially, and once I started to sort through it, I'm like, No, He is up to something here. I'm going with Him in this. We're not meant to go through it alone, but it is a lie from the pit of hell that you won't get through it. He's threatening to expose you, but what he's scared of is his exposure. You know, your threat to him is very connected to his threat to you, and so just shut him down. I mean, that's one of the other things in the book I talk a lot about, is really not giving so much air time to him not having, conversations around that or letting him spew in our ears. That's what your shield is for, to block those fiery arrows and any kind of threat or taunt he sends your way. Because, we have to clear the field of all these competing emotions if we wanna win the battle. And that really is important to deal quickly with those things. And those are the things that I sort of let linger and swirl in my head or stay in my basement. And they were just places that the enemy could use to plague and torment. I'm much more alert now to those kinds of things, encroaching and infringing on my property, so to speak.
Ivelisse Page:So much of us are always constantly focused on our physical side, you know, physical side of healing, and this part is really really hard and, whether it's forgiveness, whether it's a trauma or whatever that has gone through, and I know we're gonna share that next time as far as your story is on how God used, forgiveness and the people in your life to work through things from your past. Knowing what you know now, why do you recommend that women take time to grieve their losses? So many times we're just like push, off full steam ahead and trying to move forward and put it behind us. Why do you think it's important for us to grieve the losses?
Susie Larson:Because Jesus wants to meet us there, in the valley of the shadow. And there are plenty of psalms of lament that show how important that process is, and I did write about that Steven Arterburn in the book. It was years ago when I had him on the show. And this again was years prior to what we've just walked through in the last three years. But he said, Susie, one of the great epidemics in the church is unresolved grief, that we've got a series of losses, hurts, and disappointments, and we've taken no time to deal with them. And I think maybe you've met someone who's got this unresolved grief and it clouds your view of everything. When Jesus says, I'm doing a new thing, you perceive it? He makes all things new and those who wait on the Lord will renew their strength. They'll run and not get weary. They'll walk and not faint. And there's a new strength that even exceeds your age. You know, young people will stumble and fall. Even the young people who are at the peak of their health will wear out and stumble and fall. But God wants to infuse you with a new strength and power. And I don't know who said it first. I quoted all the time. I'm gonna have to go find the person who wrote it, but this author said, a thousand people are waiting on the other side of your obedience. And to think it's so important to know your story isn't just about you. And I think nursing a grudge and nursing a hurt where you're coddling it and protecting it makes you very inward focused. But when you offer that hurt to God to say, I'm gonna own it, I'm gonna admit it, I'm gonna feel it so I can heal it. I'm gonna walk it through with God. Then you're able to give comfort because of the comfort you received. And I think if you refuse to grieve, you're refusing God's comfort. Because, the thing is too, I think we see some of the great losses that others have had, and so we let it minimize the losses we've had. But comparing your hurt to someone else in that regard will never help you heal. It doesn't matter how big their loss is and how small yours seems. If it hits you big, it's because it's probably connected to something deeper that you're not even remembering. And when you start to give some honor and space to that and say, why is this hitting me so hard? And the Lord will say, actually, when you were a child, something similar happened. You remember? And then he'll bring you back to something happened in your school classroom. Something mean your teacher said, and it seemed inconsequential. But your little heart, it felt very big and again, unresolved. And the thing is, God is constantly, constantly bringing us back to these places so he can put a truth where a lie has been planted.
Ivelisse Page:I'm hearing you say that I'm seeing the wave behind you and the wave behind me. And I know it's the cover, almost identical of one of your recent books. But as you were talking about that, it reminded me of something that Dr. Turner mentioned when we talked about emotional healing from her book. And she said, a great way to picture getting into that grieving process in a healthy way is to picture an ocean wave. And as the feelings come into your body, like just you kind of take it in and then you let it back out into the ocean.
Susie Larson:I like that.
Ivelisse Page:Take it in. Feel what you're feeling and then let it back out into the ocean. But I wanna add one more thing that you said as you're taking it in. Replace that lie with God's truth. And when you replace that lie with God's truth, you're able to release it into His ocean of peace and promise for your life. And so I hope that visual helps to encourage someone today to say, you know what, God has something more for me. He says that his thoughts of me outnumber the grains of sand. Even as he cares for the birds, he thinks of me even more so.
Susie Larson:Amen.
Ivelisse Page:I love that it's important for us to not just bury it, but to take it in, ask God to heal it and release it.
Susie Larson:Mm-hmm.
Ivelisse Page:In a small amount. You don't have to do it all at one time. Kind of like those boulders. Each year we may have to remove some of those boulders and work on the ones that come on the next year.
Susie Larson:You know, one thought I'll just add to that, that sometimes people are grieving and they're like, But I don't know what the lie is. And one of the ways you can help identify it is if you can finish this sentence: I'm not worth BLANK. So I was at an event one day and I asked women to finish the sentence, I'm not worth, and did anything come to your mind? And some said, I'm not worth being a wife or a mother or being healed. Or being protected or being defended or being rescued. And I think when you can get to the bottom of what you believe about that, then you can find a truth. For me, it was not worth healing and not worth protecting. And it's like I was a seasoned believer at that point, but if I was honest, because I was right in the thick of this battle years ago, again, it was so devastating for me. I thought, okay, now I gotta find truth that refutes that lie because the enemy's constantly building a case in our presence. And then he is constantly in God's presence building a case against us. We're the ones who remove him from that equation. And because Jesus is interceding day and night, so we gotta do some of the work of uprooting, those lies. And what the theme throughout the book is we pursue healing and then we pray for a miracle. We do what we can do and then we ask God to do it only He can do. But we have to start and end with the foundation that God is good. He's pursuing us, He loves us, as you said, he thinks constantly about us and not one of those thoughts involves rolling his eyes and breathing a heavy sigh. He never goes, you know what I mean? He loves us. He loves us. He's got a fatherly protection for us, and when we start to really count on that, then we're safe to heal so that it starts and it ends with His love and His care for us.
Ivelisse Page:That was just beautiful what you just shared. But before we close, is there anything in regards to the book that you feel that I didn't ask that you would feel is important for our listeners to take with them today.
Susie Larson:I appreciate that. I'll just add that there is a companion D V D, and there are groups that have gone through it together that have found healing together. Some go through it alone, but I just feel like the healing process needs to happen in community and I think that's one of the reasons I think Believe. Big is such a brilliant, God given idea because in collaboration and community is when I think God does his best work. So I would sure encourage you to consider that, getting together with a few women. You'll be surprised. There have been women who've emailed me, pastors wives and leaders who said, I went into this with a leadership mindset going, I'm gonna help all the people who are hurting. I was not ready for what God would unearth in me, but I'm free. God has delivered me from some things I'd forgotten about or stuffed. And I just think he's on a mission right now, healing his people and positioning us so that we can represent Him to a world in need. So.
Ivelisse Page:We'll definitely put the links to that in our show notes for people who would like to have those resources. Susie, thank you so much for taking time out of your busy schedule to be with us today. I want everyone to be listening out cuz we're gonna have part two of this story where you will hear Susie's incredible miracle story she's walking out right now from her Lyme disease. It's such a powerful story that I wanted to make sure we had enough time to unpack it and the process that you went through. So I look forward to talking with you again soon.
Susie Larson:I just love you dear Sister. Thank you and I look forward to our time next time.
Ivelisse Page:If you enjoyed this episode and you'd like to help support our podcast, please subscribe and share it with others. Be sure to visit believebig.org to access the show notes and discover our bonus content. Thanks again and keep Believing Big!