Breaking Free from the Bonds of Stress
After reaching a point in her life when she felt like she was in prison and in desperate need of a jailbreak, author Gari Meacham was at a dangerous crossroads between choosing life or death. Little did she know at the time, a miracle was just around the corner.
In this episode of the Women of Faith Show, Meacham sits down with host Alita Reynolds to talk about unhealthy habits and compulsions that come from the all-too-common silent killer called stress.
Reflecting on her childhood that was full of heartache and trauma after her dad became a quadriplegic and her mom went down a temporary road of alcoholism, Meacham shares she became “miserably sick with secrets” as all the stress accumulating inside her displayed itself in the form of eating disorders.
Spiraling further down a dark and hopeless road, while in college, Meacham decided she was going to take her own life. But after seeing a picture of Jesus hanging on her roommate’s wall, the miracle came, and she explains how Jesus met her in that moment and saved her from ending it all.
“The weight lifted,” Meacham said, but she didn’t immediately experience complete healing from her unhealthy eating compulsions until her second child was born.
Throughout their conversation, Meacham and Reynolds draw insight from John 5 when Jesus asked a paralyzed man a seemingly unnecessary question:
“When Jesus saw him lying there and knew that he had already been there a long time, he said to him, ‘Do you want to be healed?’” (John 5:6, ESV).
Although the answer is obvious for this man, it’s not always so apparent for those plagued by the whirlwind of stress.
“God wants us to be well,” Meacham said. She also encourages viewers to “just say yes” to God because He wants to do a healing work in people’s lives.
Tune in to this episode and glean much-needed truths for when life’s little and large inconveniences threaten to rain trouble on the peace of God’s ever-present help and learn from Reynolds what it means to consistently stay in the green light area of stress.
If you or someone you know is in crisis, call 988 to reach the Suicide and Crisis Lifeline. You can also call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 800-273-8255 or text HOME to 741741.
