From Chaos to Calm with Jess Kayhart

Today’s discussion leads to the question:

 How can God still be good, even when bad things happen?

 Author Jess Kayhart shares her personal story of loss and how she was able to turn towards God and not away from Him during the most painful point of her life.

Jess shares key moments of her traumatic childhood, including being involved in a tragic accident that took the life of Penny, her stepmom. Then in response to that lost, her father committed suicide 6 weeks later.

She believed the following lies: “If you can know everything and you can help during a crisis, that can be where your value comes from. If you know enough and are good enough, it will all be fine.” This was a lie placed in Jess’s heart that led her to a life of perfectionism.

The turnaround for her happened at a conference/church service where she devoted her life to Christ and received His deep healing. He healed all her wounds. From there Jess was able to fully heal and surrender to her situation. She then talks about her posture for the Lord. How she changed her posture and slowly turned towards Him. 

Jess shares how she met the love of her life, how she was set up and mortified to be set up with Ken, her future husband. They met at a youth conference and had a whirlwind romance. They met and married within 6 months. However, trust was still difficult for Jess to acquire and she talks about how that is normal for people who go through trauma. She talks about the importance of honesty and open communication. She says, “Do not ask questions you don’t want the answer to!” How good is that?!

Panic attacks became a regular thing in Jess’ life. It taught her that she still had parts of her that were trying to get control. And there were still things Jess needed to deal with. The panic attacks went on for 6 months straight and they came out of nowhere! They were relentless. Her mind went racing and she felt a tremendous amount of heat in her body and she was unable to breathe. So all she could think to do was walk outside. Ultimately, she found a therapist to help her work through the anxiety. How you can be compassionate towards yourself. She recommends two books on anxiety:

The Body Keeps the Score

From Panic to Power

To get more insight check out Jess's website

Here's a link to Jess's book Father King