Tag: Sea Changed

Soul story

Image by Gerd Altmann on Pixabay

I’ve had the pleasure of hosting Kate Nicholas on my blog twice before and am thrilled to welcome her back to describe how we each have a soul story to share, as she launches her book Soul’s Scribe.

How do you feel about talking about your walk with God? The idea of sharing our faith with others can certainly be quite daunting, particularly if we feel that we don’t know enough about the Bible or worry about being asked questions we just can’t answer. However, we don’t have to be theologians to witness convincingly. All we need to be able to do is to talk about how we have personally experienced God — to tell our ‘soul story’.

You may think that your life story isn’t particularly dramatic or interesting but the reality is that each us also has a soul story to tell – a unique story about that part of us that connects with God.

Understanding my soul story

I only began to understand my own soul story when facing a cancer diagnosis. As my life ground to a halt under the onslaught of chemotherapy, I looked back over my 50 plus years and for the first time began to see how God had been at work. I recalled my early childhood belief in the unseen, my rebellion years, as well as my first tentative steps back to him, which were followed by a remarkable blossoming of faith in middle age. I remembered the giddy mountain-top moments as well as the sense of his presence in the challenging valleys and, for the first time, recognised how he had guided into my life through scripture, circumstances, encounters and a series of inexplicable synchronicities or God-incidences. As I looked back, I recognised that the seemingly random occurrences of my life were pregnant with meaning and that my own story was far more mysterious than I had ever imagined.

All too often it seems to take a crisis in our lives for us to look back like this, but doing so is so valuable as it helps us to see life as an adventure full of meaning and purpose. Aristotle once wrote that ‘Memory is the scribe of the soul’ and God wants us to understand our soul story because it is here that our narrative is woven with his own. When we look back we will also see how our relationship with God changes over time – whether we grew up in a Christian household or only came to know him later in life. Some of us may have had a Damascene conversion, while others may experience what St Paul called an anaikonosis, a gradual renewing of the mind (Romans 12:2). In early adulthood we may have questioned the teaching of the Church but later may have found a way to co-exist with some paradoxes of faith and been able to full mystery of God.

Sharing our soul stories

God also wants us to share our soul stories. Throughout the Bible, God’s people are encouraged to declare the works of the Lord. In an increasingly secular society it is even more important to speak of all that God has done for us.

When I was first ill, I kept on being given a passage from Psalm 118:17: ‘I will not die but declare the works of the Lord’. So when, against all odds, I survived I wrote an account of my unconventional faith journey called Sea Changed and went on to share my soul story with churches and Christian groups all around the country. I have also now written a guide to understanding and sharing your soul story. Soul’s Scribe draws on scripture, developmental psychology – to help people understand how God has been at work through the different stages of their life – and provides the kind of tools used by professional communicators to help people have the confidence to step out and tell their stories in a way that will inspire and encourage family, friends and others.

The power of your story

Last year, just as I was gearing up for the launch Soul’s Scribe, I was once again diagnosed with cancer. Everything was put on hold while I went through treatment but God has been good to me and I am once again in remission, Praise the Lord. 

While I went through 18 months of chemotherapy, bio-targeted treatments and surgery, I continued to share my experience of God through my blog Faith, Life and Cancer, the responses to which have only reinforced my belief in the key message of this book – that God wants us to understand and share our soul story.  

Your soul story may also include times of challenge and even doubt (the surest path to faith isn’t always a straight line) but this is what makes your soul story so powerful. Because your authentic experience of God can resonate with even those who might disagree with your theology. 

You don’t need to be a public speaker or an author (although I do offer an online course called Write Your Soul Story for anyone who wants to take the next step and to write an autobiography or memoir). You just need to be willing to step out in faith, and tell your tale and God will do the rest. 

Kate Nicholas is a preacher, author and broadcaster with over 30 years of experience as a national journalist and editor. She wrote her first book Sea Changed – an account of her unconventional journey of faith and healing – while being treated for cancer. She has gone on to share her message of hope through her books, blog Faith, Life and Cancer, and her TV series Living a Transformed Life on TBN. Her latest book Soul’s Scribe – a guide to understanding and sharing your soul story – is now available. For more information on Kate, her books and her online course Write Your Soul Story visit www.katenicholas.co.uk

Taught to trust

Taken by Kate’s husband, John Vilkaitis

Today I welcome Kate Nicholas to the Unmasked: stories of authenticity series. I thoroughly enjoyed her book Sea Changed, and found her insights and courage in the midst of cancer inspirational. She shares here about the need to let go of control and trust Jesus.

For most of my life, I have been a bona fide control freak. It is a tendency honed by years of working in, and with, the media – initially as a journalist then editor-in-chief of business and current affairs magazine and global communications chief of Christian aid agency World Vision.

In the cut and thrust of the newsroom, or the midst of a humanitarian crisis, there is little room for you to be vulnerable. As a leader you have to be seen to be strong, resilient and in control, and in order to survive many develop a mask to hide the child within. My husband used to jokingly refer to the tough persona that I unwittingly developed as Kate Nicholas plc.

It also isn’t easy being a Christian in the media. All too often those with faith are dismissed as too trusting and naive to have the critical faculties necessary for serious journalism. But this view is based on a fundamental misconception about the nature of trust.

Trust isn’t a passive option.It often requires considerable courage. It is the opposite of being in control and learning to trust is sometimes incredibly challenging.

NO CHOICE BUT TO TRUST

It was the summer of 2014 when I was first diagnosed with advanced inoperable cancer that had spread around my heart. My prognosis was not good and I found myself in a situation that was completely beyond my control.

There was absolutely nothing I could do to change it. All I could do was trust that God would do what was best for me. Cancer is a great trust teacher!

From the outset, I felt that God was with me in the midst of my suffering. I had a strong impression that he was telling me to let go, to stop holding on so tightly to my life, and let him take the helm. And it was only when I finally gave in, and surrendered my control freak tendencies, that God was able to do something wonderful and transformative.

LEARNING FROM PETER

The Gospel of Matthew includes a remarkable story about trust. Matthew recounts an incident that took place on the Sea of Galilee. It was a stormy night, and the apostles were rowing through the darkness when they saw what they thought was an apparition walking towards them across the surface of the water. They were understandably afraid and cried out in terror, but then they heard a voice saying, ‘Take courage! It is I. Don’t be afraid.’

They thought it was Jesus but couldn’t be sure so Peter replied, ‘Lord, if it’s you . . . tell me to come to you on the water.’ And when Jesus said simply, ‘Come,’ without hesitation Peter climbed out of the boat and, as the storm raged around him, stepped out in faith towards his Saviour. It is probably the greatest example of breathtaking, inspiring human trust in Scripture.

All too often we focus on the fact that, a few moments later, Peter took his eye off Christ and, looking down at the waves at his feet, began to panic and sink, but this doesn’t diminish the extraordinary trust that he initially displayed. For a moment he put his faith into action and acted on his belief.

To trust is let go of our need for control.Trust isn’t safe. It requires us to step out of our comfort zone and it severely challenges those of us who feel the need to plan every aspect of our lives (and others’) down to the last detail. Trust demands that we, like Peter, be willing to step out in faith into the unknown.

The Hebrew word for ‘to trust’ in the Old Testament is bataach, which means to have a bold, confident security, and the New Testament Greek word pisteuo means to have confidence in the thing believed. Trust requires us to take the risk of believing in that which we can’t yet see,to let go of our own inadequate and incomplete understanding of God’s plans and recognise that he is on the throne.

Living trusting in ourselves is frankly exhausting and ultimately futile, but we will find that when we are willing to truly hand over control to our creator, God will transform us in more ways than we can ever imagine.

Kate Nicholas is an author, broadcaster and consultant with 30 years’ experience working in media and communications. She preaches at the church of St Peter and St Paul, Olney where the world-famous hymn Amazing Grace was written.

Kate’s best-selling memoir Sea Changed (shortlisted Christian Biography of the Year 2017) tells the story of her unconventional journey of faith and healing from advanced cancer. Her latest book Sea Changed: A Companion Guide – Living a Transformed Lifelooks at how God uses the circumstances of our lives to transform us, as well at what the fruits of this transformation look like – including the ultimate transformation that takes place at the end of our earthly life. Her recent 12-part TV series Living a Transformed Life (which aired on TBN UK) can be viewed free on demand at www.katenicholas.co.ukor   https://www.tbnuk.org/vod/watch/living-a-transformed-life/our-god-of-transformation

Kate’s books are available at Christian bookstores and Waterstones throughout the UK and online at eden.co.uk and Amazon worldwide.