Grace Amidst Deep Waters with Cindy Casey

Welcome to the podcast Through Deep Waters, where we explore the message of resilience and hope in Isaiah 43:2. We meet Cindy, who shares her journey as a Christian, wife, mom, and Mimi. She found faith during a difficult time and leaned on her faith to navigate challenges like being a single mom and going through a divorce. She emphasizes the importance of grieving and finding support from church and loved ones. Cindy shares how she shifted her focus and found hope in God's word during different stages of her life. Welcome to Through Deep Waters, the podcast delving into Isaiah 43-2. When you go through deep waters, I will be with you. When you go through rivers of difficulty, you will not drown. When you walk through the fire of oppression, you will not be burned up. The flames will not consume you. Join us as we explore the profound message of resilience, faith, and hope found in the depths of Isaiah's words. Discover how we can navigate life's challenges emerging stronger and unwavering through the deep waters. So, listener, pour yourself a cup of your favorite brew, sink into a comfy chair, and tune in as we begin the journey together. Hello, listeners, and welcome back to Through Deep Waters, where we help other women navigate the deep waters that they may be walking through. As you know, my name is Monique, and this is Martha. Hi, we are so excited that you have joined us again on this journey to where we're going to discuss grace amidst deep waters with Cindy Casey, our friend and mentor that helps us serve and be a person and light in our church. So we are so excited to have you, Cindy. Well, thank you. I am so excited to be here with you two beautiful ladies. You are such an encouragement to me, so this is truly a privilege to be able to be a part of this with you. We're so excited to have you and to hear some of your story. So can you share a bit more about your journey as a Christian, you being a wife, a mom, and a Mimi? Sure. I love to say my identity is, first and foremost, I am a child of God. And then I am a wife to Jim and a mom to Tim and Kyle and a Mimi to Kaden Carson in Clifton. And it's truly such a joy when God blesses us with family and friends and people that we can do a life with. I am a Christian. I have actually been a Christ follower for over 35 years. I came to know Christ at a young age because I was a young single mom going through just a really difficult time. And I worked with a woman who was a Christian, and she just shared the gospel with me. Even though I had grown up going to church, I grew up singing Jesus Loves Me. I never put those pieces together until she confronted me and said, you know, all those things that you've done are great, but why did Jesus have to die on a cross then? And it was like, oh, that light bulb came on for me. And so, yeah, I asked Jesus into my heart and been following him ever since. Never looked back. Wonderful. So can you tell me a little bit about how you met your husband? Yeah, you know what? Actually, I was a single mom when I met my husband. It was like I said, I was a young mom when I had my first son and went through a difficult season there. And then found myself as a young single mom with two children. And I knew that I had to faithfully go to church. You know, that was the only place where I found peace and hope. And I was sitting in a back pew, and I saw this man in the very front, never saw his face, but I just saw him raise up his arms praising God. And it just softened my heart. And so it wasn't until probably at least a year later that I put pieces together that when I got to know Jim that that was the same man that was standing up in the front of the church. Yeah. A beautiful story. I love that. So, you know, we have learned a lot about your journey and your story and a lot of different experiences that you have faced challenges and being pregnant at a young age, going through a divorce, having empty nest syndrome, right, being sad about kids being gone and having grandkids that live out of state, right? And all of those things align with the theme of our podcast of healing and developing resilience and overcoming those hard times. Is there one of those that you would like to just dive in deep for us and kind of talk about the impact those challenges made on you and how it's influenced your journey? Yeah. You know what? I will start kind of early on because, you know, first and foremost, we all go through deep waters. None of us are exempt from avoiding those deep waters. But I do think that the one thing that, you know, we can always hold on to when we know Christ is our faith in him. And so, you know, my first deep water, again, yes, I was 18 years old, had just started college when I found out that I was pregnant with my first child and just was so torn at what to do. And so the father and I decided to get married. And then when he was two years old, he had some health issues. And that was when I gave my life to Christ and just really knew that I had to lean into my faith in order to get through that season. And it was amazing the people that God put in my path and in my life to give me encouragement and hope. And so I was able to get through that and then found myself, you know, I had another child and then found myself going through a divorce. And that was so difficult. My heart goes out to women who are going through a divorce and finding themselves as single moms because it was a real depression and a setback for me, especially those weekends that I didn't have the kids. And I can remember just one weekend I was so sad and so depressed. I just wanted to get in a corner as free as I could to feel like I had arms around me or something because I was so lonely and so sad and just wanted to squeeze in there so it felt like somebody was holding me. But anyway, that was a difficult season. But again, I remember praying and journaling and just trying to lean into my faith to give me hope. I think so many people can relate to that is when we go through trials and we can often feel very alone and secluded from others even when we have people all around us sometimes. So you mentioned praying and journaling and friends and family and your faith being pillars. Can you elaborate on how each of these supported you through that time? I know there are so many times in my life I would have loved to do that too, like get in that corner and just feel like a feeling of arms around me. But how did it help you to feel supported in those ways? I did. I leaned into my faith. I was connected in a church actually where our church started from originally, which is now considered our Oregon campus. But I leaned into just whatever I could do. I was in prayer night, I was in Bible studies, I was in the women's event. I did whatever I could to find people that were going to encourage me and just help me. Not feeling sorry for myself because that's easy, I think, to do, but just finding ways to find that hope. For a couple of years, I did. That's where I met my husband was at that same church. But, yeah, that was where I was able to find encouragement through those deep waters was at church. How do you feel that that played in a part into your healing process? Do you feel like there was one moment or one thing in particular that you did that helped your healing process? I just remember a lot of times they had a Wednesday night Bible study and we would sing some songs. I can remember being there and just crying and asking God to show me hope and to encourage me. I do feel like that was a healing because we all have to grieve when we go through those deep waters. Absolutely. We can't think that we're just going to muscle up and get through it. I think it's important that we know we need to grieve. Yeah, that's good. Can you talk to us a little bit about how you're able to reconcile, I guess, with what God's plan is for your life and the adversities that you've had to face and how those things work together? Yeah. You know what? I see all of it. Some of those things have been difficult. We talked about my kids, when they moved away, when my oldest son went to college. Oh, my goodness, that was really a difficult season for me. My husband, he'd be like, Cindy, are you going to be okay? I was like, I don't know, because I felt like I lost a piece of my identity. I had been a mom since I was 19 years old. Then to get to this place where it's like, oh, he doesn't need me. Just getting through that and knowing that I had to grieve, that is so key, knowing when we go through those difficult times. I just don't know if I can say that enough about the grieving, but knowing that I had to grieve. It was okay to be sad. It was okay to cry. Jim would just come up to me a lot of times and just hug me and just let me cry. I think so many people take for granted or kind of dismiss grief so much because they think, oh, I didn't lose anybody. They didn't pass away. They're still here. I can still see them. But it's so essential to honor the stage of life that you're in, like going from being a mother and dedicating your life to working and then taking care of this child. Then all of a sudden, they're not dependent on you. So honoring that moment and stage and saying, okay, let's look at self-discovery. Now shifting your attention to yourself and your husband and your other child. Being able to shift. So how did that play out? How did you come to the realization that God was always with you, regardless of the circumstances, and then how do you shift when you're going towards something different? Yeah. You know what? I know that God's word gave me a lot of hope and encouragement. There's a verse that says, think about what is good and holy and pure. I really felt like God wanted me to grieve but not stay in it, because I was not any good for me or anyone else if I allowed myself to stay in it. So I just kept feeling like he kept telling me, think about what is good. Think about what is holy. Think about what is pure. I could see that I'm so blessed. I have a good husband that loves Jesus too, that is here to encourage me. I have another son that is healthy and strong, and he does still need me. So I need to be present for him. And then seeing the people that God placed in my life, that he wanted to use me in those ways also. So we're so grateful that God has put you in our lives. You know, you inspire us every day to come to serve as the director of Next Steps at our church where we love to go. And I have to bring up a moment where a few weeks, was it a few months ago, when your knee, you had a little accident with your knee. And I remember every time I saw you, you had joy on your face and you're smiling and you're there to serve, even though you were injured, even though you were hurt. How did you manage to stay positive? You know what, I can't. We have to focus on what is good. And, you know, yes, I fell. I fractured my knee. I was in a brace. And then even three days later, I had a deer incident with my car. So I was without a car for a week. I felt like I lost all my independence after the deer on Sunday. I fell on Thursday. And then on Sunday, the whole deer that I lost my car. And I can just remember thinking, I don't know how much more I can take. Yeah, that's a total bad MPA surrender. Yes, I just felt like I lost a little bit of my independence. But I keep thinking, okay, I was not hurt in this car accident. Yes, I have a brace on, but I don't need surgery. I have to keep reminding myself that I have so much to be thankful for. Everything could have been so much worse. I'm still blessed. I still have my health. And thank goodness I have taken pretty good care of myself physically as far as my health, that it wasn't going to get me down. So that's what I had to keep telling myself. It seems that you, as long as you stay positive, you can just keep moving forward. You had mentioned that everyone goes through deep waters, which we have seen in our own lives. Can you expand on that with what you mean by this and how it relates to finding strength and hope and seeing the grace in life? Again, no one is exempt from going through difficult seasons in life. And so I think that it's where we put our perspective. Because again, the whole grief thing, if we stay in there, we can allow it to become our identity. And when we go through those deep waters because of that difficult season, we can't let that be our identity. Our identity has to be in who God has made us, all the good things about us. Whether we have a spiritual gift of encouragement or help or whatever it might be, God wants us to lean into that purpose in our life when we are in those deep waters. Because he doesn't want us to drown. No, not at all. No, you're right. So we see you at church and you're there serving, but that's your job, right? That's what you do. And so how do you balance between your personal and your professional ministry? But then also make sure you're getting your own spiritual growth. You know what? I get teary-eyed thinking about it, Monique. I'm so blessed. I'm so blessed to be able to serve with women like you, to be able to have you in my life. And I believe that God puts everybody in our lives for a reason. It's not a coincidence. And it's not a coincidence that we are sitting here today. And so that's almost allowed my professional or what I get to do for a living to also be my personal. And I think no matter what job we're in now, we can turn it to look like that. Depending on how we put into the relationships of the people that are around us every day and how we can see them how God sees them. And no matter what we do, we can look at it as a blessing. Perfect. That's great. That is awesome. You had also mentioned about the empty nest and what depression that it kind of brought up for you. When did you feel the breakthrough or found a glimmer of hope? Because I believe a lot of people right now, especially with kids graduating high school or college or both, a lot of parents are probably feeling this angst of, what do I do now? So what helped you? You know what? Again, I'm so blessed to be in the position that I am. And it really is important that we stay in God's word. It is important that we journal and we write down how we feel, because I think that God can help us to see those feelings and how he wants to step into them. And yes, the emptiness thing was, oh, that was difficult. But again, continuing to pray, continuing to stay in God's word and continuing to stay connected with the people at church. And so it's like God opened that door for me. And he tells us to ask for what we want. And he cares about the things we care about. And so I was asking him to just continue to use me. And he allowed me to step into a role at church to come alongside the interns. He had an intern program at the church. And it's like he was still using me because it was that mom figure, but with these other people. Oh, I love that. And so that's been a real blessing for me to be able to be a part of that. And now I actually work with the mentors and getting them connected with an intern. So I look for mentors to mentor the interns. So you built this beautiful community to shift your focus on. That's awesome. But that was only God opening that door because I asked. Yeah. We had to ask him. That's right. So during these times, there's doubt and there's uncertainty and there's the unknown. And so how do you maintain your faith during those times? You know what? One of the things that my husband and I said when we got married, because before we were married, we were in a group together. But after we got married, we said that we will always be in a group with others for accountability, for Christian friendship, just to continue to grow together. And so one of the things that's really important is making sure you always have people around you that you are growing with, because there are always going to be people that come into our lives that want us to help, you know, and build into them. Or they want encouragement from us and, you know, God wants to use us that way. But we also need those peers around us that are going to encourage us. Yeah. And in those encouraging moments, did you find any unexpected sources of support or moments of grace that have profoundly impacted your journey? You know what? It's always amazing how God brings people into our lives in a season. And we do have friendships that, you know, are just for a season. And that's always difficult because you think at that time, oh my goodness, this is my best friend forever. And then it's like something, you know, they move away or, you know, life changes. But those people that God brings into our lives that stay forever are such an encouragement. And so that's where I just want to say that there are times that we think, oh, life is good. I wanted to always stay like this. But we have to be reminded that everything is a season and we just don't know what tomorrow is going to hold or what things are going to look like. That's exactly the next point we're going to talk about is, you know, looking back on your life, you shared with us that you don't know what tomorrow is going to hold, but God does. Yes. Right. So can you expand a little bit more on that lesson that you've learned and how that keeps you grounded in your faith? Yeah, exactly. You know, just like we don't ever want things to stay the same. I don't think that that's healthy. But knowing that we can lean into God's word, God's word never changes. Leaning into that prayer and that journaling, for me, that doesn't change. You know, I do tell God once in a while, I'm sorry, because I feel like I'm saying, help me, help me a lot. Where I need to be just praising you. I just need to be saying, you know, you are so good. And just knowing that we don't know what tomorrow holds. So, okay, Lord, you and I, we're going to get through whatever that looks like. Yeah, absolutely. So what advice would you have for others? Would you provide some of the practical advice or specific tools that have helped you? Because we are all about tools. We are. We like to share tools with everyone. We like to give our listeners something tangible so that they can take with them, try it out. If it works for them, great. If not, great. You know, no harm done. But was there something that you found that during those times of grappling and adversity that really helped you? You know what? For me, you know, again, I go back to my first identity as a child of God. And so, mesmerizing scripture for me has been key in being able to lean on those times of, you know, uncertainty. And just knowing that, I think I said, one of the first scriptures I ever memorized was, I can do all things through Christ who gives me strength in 413. You know, and when I went through some of those rough seasons, it's like, I got to get out of bed. You know what? And before my feet hit the floor, just say, I can do all things through Christ who gives me strength. And then it's like, okay, what's the next step going to be? And every morning, it's really important to me. And I know all of us, our lives look different. Our relationship with Christ looks different. But for me, my quiet time in the morning is so important. My time in my devotion, my time in God's word, and my time journaling. And writing out those prayers. And being able to go back and look and see where I was. I actually have this little five-year journal that is next to my bed. I've talked to you about this before. And just every day I write in there and then see where I was last year on the same date and how I was feeling. And I love seeing how God just shows up and does things. So journaling is a big one. And if you don't want to have to write a lot, I recommend that five-year journal. I love that. So thank you. What a great resource for our listeners, Cindy. So I think we're ready to probably wrap up our time together. You have given our listeners a lot of great wisdom and tools that they can use to continue to navigate their deep waters. We know that our listeners, they could be right in the middle of deep waters or they could be on the other side. And so we're just so grateful that you would be willing to share your story and just inspire others to continue to move forward in deep waters. Well, thank you. Yeah. Listeners, that is all for now. Don't forget that it is okay to grieve. It is okay to get into community. And it is okay to realize and honor the journey that you're in. But remember, there is always grace to be found among those deep waters. As we conclude our journey today, listeners, of Through Deep Waters, let us hold on to the powerful message that was inspired by Isaiah 43.2. I'm Monique, and this is Martha. And we are your hosts as we go through deep waters together. Remember, Adventurers, that amidst life's trials and uncertainties, we can trust that God has a plan and purpose for our future. In the deep waters, we are called to have unwavering confidence knowing that we have been equipped with all we need to succeed.