A Season of Wandering in Faith—and Coming Back: Pastor Sheryl Brady

Series 3

Apr 6

In some of the harder seasons of our lives, we may find ourselves asking questions, “How am I supposed to get through this?” or, “How could a good God let something so awful happen?” And when answers don’t come easily or maybe don’t come at all, we may find ourselves in a season of doubt and wandering. In this next installment of Faith in the Firestorm, Nancy talks with Pastor Sheryl Brady of The Potter’s House, who shares her own season of wandering that followed the deaths of her older sister and mother just a few years ago. As a prominent church leader, Pastor Brady felt the pressure to smile and give others hope in public, while inside she was losing her own hope and questioning how God could let her down in such a profound way. When Pastor Brady decided to take away the walls of “having to be strong” and publicly share her grief with her church community, she received an outpouring of love and support she could have never predicted. While seasons of suffering may cause us to wander, they also give us empathy for others who are going through hard seasons. And sometimes, that love quietly leads us all back to believing in a God who never leaves us to face out troubles alone.

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Show Summary

Hi there, Nancy Hicks here. Welcome back to So What? Why It Matters. Right now. We're in a series called Faith in the Firestorm.

I'm reminded, as we think about faith, that faith is something initiated by God, our faith. It's a noun, and actually the origins of that word, faith in its original use, for example, in the Hebrew Bible, in the Book of Genesis, that word faith is translated as oath. So this oath, this faith is initiated, sustained and gifted to you by God. And then the second part is how you live it out. You live out that faith. And nothing is going to prove your faith, that noun, that oath like a firestorm.

As we dive into today's episode, let me ask you a question. How do you feel about the direction your life is headed? Are you confident in the path you're forging? And if you're answering, yes, then great. Keep heading in that direction. But I bet there was a time in your life when you didn't feel that way, you might have felt unsure of yourself, you might have been battling with choices you made in the past that you aren't proud of, that compelled you to veer onto a new path, one that was a bit darker for you.

Or, you may be someone who's there right now, you cannot see the way forward, you feel like you're wandering, and you have no idea what to do. How do you find your way back, or which way do you take to move forward? If you feel this way right now, then I have four words for you, my friend: you are not alone.

So many have walked where you are. I take great comfort in reading the poignant work of some of the greatest men and women who have walked with God over the centuries in ways I can only humbly ask God to come close to replicating. And they all, every last one of them, wrestled with this matter.

Thomas Merton, the Trappist monk and theologian, wasn't a stranger to this feeling. He wrote the most beautiful prayer about this feeling of wandering:

My Lord God,
I have no idea where I'm going.
I do not see the road ahead of me.
I cannot know for certain where it will end.
Nor do I really know myself.
And the fact that I think I'm following your will does not mean that I am actually doing so.
But I believe the desire to please you does, in fact, please you.
And I hope I have that desire in all that I am doing.
I hope that I will never do anything apart from that desire.
And I know if I do this, you will lead me by the right road, though I may know nothing about it.
Therefore, I will trust you always, though I may seem to be lost and in the shadow of death, I will not fear for you are ever with me.
And you will never leave me to face my perils alone.

Isn't that beautiful?

Let me tell it to you straight: there are going to be times in your life when you're going to wonder. Life is not going to make sense all of the time. In fact, it shouldn't make sense all of the time. You're going to ask questions. In fact, you should be asking questions. And there will be seasons when you don't get quick answers.

So what do you do in those seasons? How do you hold the tension between questions that don't have clear answers and the faith to walk this path, this particular path with God? Or maybe you're doing okay, but there's someone in your life who isn't. They’re the one who's wandering and you're not sure how to help them. It's gut wrenching, right? What do you say? What do you do?

Well, my guest today has walked through seasons like this herself. She has held that very tension and she's going to tell us how she found her way through wandering and how you can too. My guest today is Pastor Sheryl Brady.

She's led thousands of people through her work at the Potter's House of North Dallas while also raising three girls and nine grandkids with her husband, Bishop Joby Brady. She's also written several books that help readers focus on how to become the most faithful versions of themselves, including her latest book called Don't Miss the Moment: How God Uses the Insignificant to Create the Extraordinary.

I sincerely hope and pray that this episode, packed with meaning and so many takeaways, truly serves you today. So here's my conversation with Pastor Sheryl Brady.

So What? Moments

Pastor Sheryl Brady
You've got to hold onto your faith, even if it's just a little bit. Hold onto it because when God gets His hands on a little bit, He can make it into much more.

Nancy
If you're the one serving a wandering soul, do what you can to lighten their load. Gently approach them right where they are with a gentle, loving word, a soft prayer, sit with them in silence, give them space and time to say and feel all they need to to work it out.

Thought-Provoking Quotes

“I was afraid that I was going to let the depths of my disappointment be seen by the congregation or whoever might be streaming that night. As a pastor, you don't want to do that. You want to always have the right thing to say, and you want to always give them hope.” - Pastor Sheryl Brady

“The fluctuation of our faith does not mean the absence of our faith.” - Pastor Sheryl Brady

“I think I have found out that God is much more understanding than church people. I have discovered that when church people will write you off for your faith fluctuating, God says, ‘Listen, no matter how low you go, I'm right there with you,’ and you just hold onto that.” - Pastor Sheryl Brady

Your faith is like the stock market. Sometimes, it's up, and sometimes it's down. The worst thing you can do when the market goes down is to totally grab whatever you've got and just cash out of everything. If you'll just leave it be, and maybe you understand it, maybe you're looking at loss, whatever. But they always tell us, ‘Just leave it in there a little bit,’ and if it goes down, it's going to come back up.” - Pastor Sheryl Brady

“When I see a person whose faith is in a fight, when I see a person who’s grieving, everything in me—the empathy, the compassion of Christ—everything in me wants to rush and just stabilize them in the moment. I want to stabilize them because here's what I know: that it will get better.” - Pastor Sheryl Brady

“Salvation is not an event. It is a journey.” - Pastor Sheryl Brady

“I think suffering is one of the things that causes people to wander, but I do think that suffering is [also] one of those things that is a tremendous and awful gift that gives us compassion and mercy we never would've had without it toward the one who wanders.” - Pastor Sheryl Brady

“You've got to hold onto your faith, even if it's just a little bit. Hold onto it because when God gets his hands on a little bit, He can make it into much more. Listen, He loves you, He knows right where you are, and guess what? He ain't mad at you. People get mad at you, but God's not mad at you because He understands you.” - Pastor Sheryl Brady