352: Lyndsey Medford and Releasing Expectations

Lyndsey Medford is a writer and speaker living with a rare autoimmune disorder in the crumbling empire of the American South. Today, Lyndsey shares what her disorder was like as a child, the pressure she felt to make her story a redemptive one, and the kind response of the Lord who only wanted to be with her. We talk about how to develop a holistic view of yourself and the spiritual implications of doing so. Learning to listen to God, to our bodies, and to one another is a crucial discipline for the spiritual journey. Lyndsey reminds us that doing so means letting go of expectations and learning to simply be with God.

Listen to Lyndsey’s story in your favorite podcast player now!

Stories Lyndsey shared:

• Moving and finding herself back with family
• Her experience of learning to live in her body
• Growing up in North Atlanta and how church was part of her life
• Experiencing an autoimmune disorder as a child
• Praying for healing a lot
• The pressure she felt to turn her story into a redemptive one
• What the Lord said about her suffering
• The idol of productivity and how her time on the couch addressed it
• How studying theology shaped her faith
• Asking questions about what it means to be human and vocation
• Experiencing an intense depression after college
• Understanding incarnation and empire

Great quotes from Lindsey:

I did have a strong sense of having a relationship with God and being loved by God and that didn’t depend on being good at suffering or hiding my suffering in the ways I though it did at the time.

To turn [suffering] into a nice pretty story while it’s still happening is an unfair pressure we put on people.

I’ve been told all my life that there’s things you have for me to do. So when are we going to do them?

When we are really still, God is inviting us to let of some of the expectations about ourselves that no longer serve us.

Resources we mentioned:

• Lyndsey’s website
• My Body and Other Crumbling Empires: Lessons for Healing in a World That Is Sick by Lyndsey Medford

Related episodes:

• Becky Castle Miller and Trusting Your Emotions
• Skye Jethani and Living Life with God
• Jim Barnard Finds Hope in Suffering through Community

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