A guest post by Meghan DeWalt

My story begins in December 2015. I was all raring to go back to work as a part-time receptionist in a doctor’s office and even resume the young adult ministry at my family’s church even though I had no real friends beyond acquaintances therein. I had a whole new lease on life following a reconstructive hip surgery for painful hip dysplasia, and the doctor promised it’d give me some 15-20 years pain-free on one side. I resumed work and life with a buoyed spirit. Until one night, coming home from work, I could barely walk up to our front door without extreme pain. On the same side where I had been operated on only five months prior.

Due to living with severe hip dysplasia in both hips since age eleven, chronic pain and limitations had been the norm up to that point. Writing my debut novel God’s Will proved to be cathartic, a way the Lord drew me closer to Himself in my formative years. But, much like my novel went through two rewrites, one overhaul, and edited many times into what is now the third edition—God had a lot more to teach me even after dropping a fantastic-sounding reconstructive surgery into my lap in the spring of 2015.

Prior to this first surgery, I was growing increasingly restless for something, anything to change in my life. My job was good, albeit stressful at times, and one I look back on with fondness. It was just all the same for so long. And I hoped deep down, if I were wholly honest, that “The Big Change,”would be a book contract, or a guy.

But, much like how God got me to let go of my dream for my novel and reshaped it into what it is today—so He worked through my surgeries. All four of them in an eleven-month time frame that soon followed. He worked and healed my heart’s dark despair for the countless hopes deferred that began in earnest that dark December day in 2015. That day was when the doctor looked at my x-rays and told me the post-operative infection had rendered the original procedure null and void and the hip was coming out of its socket—with four pins in it. All my hopes to resume normalcy with a genuine joy and gratitude in my heart, crushed, shattered in a million pieces. The most trying, dark time spiritually and emotionally of my entire life up to that point began. It’s now the point where my testimony begins. Where redemption broke through the dark. Where God became real.

God not only healed my hips in that dark season, he healed my heart as well. Honestly, I don’t where I’d be without his presence.

I’ve reread all three of my indie published stories now, and every time, especially with my debut novel, the transparency with which I wrote my main character Kathy, and her struggles with her hopes deferred and heartbreak just blew me away. It resonated so closely to what I went through, questioning my faith, God’s goodness to me, and if there was even a purpose behind all the pain.

It took time—His constant, loving pursuit of my heart began to crack through the dark, bitter shell I had made for myself. I had retreated so far inward that the unchanging truths I was raised with—and wrote into three stories—fell like clanging symbols on my ears and I had not the strength to claim them, so deep was my pain and doubt.

Despite my life feeling ripped out from under me—God set my boundaries in pleasant places. He turned what I thought were ashes of hopes deferred into things of beauty. And He rebuilt my dreams, my heart and soul, redeeming me from the slavery of sin and shame and doubt and holding Him

God used my love of words to draw others to Himself, to remember Him, and adore Him even more. I can’t think of anything better than following hard after Him through whatever else life throws my way.

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Meghan DeWalt is an author of stories about remembrance and redemption. A full-time writer, she is passionate about theology and discipleship, encouraging others to know and love God wholeheartedly in order to live according to their Gospel calling. Meghan lives in Pittsburgh with her husband, Jeff, where they cook, practice hospitality, and adventure together.

You can keep up with Meghan on Instagram, Facebook, and her website: www.meghandewalt.com