When unexpected events change the trajectory of our lives, we have a choice to make:
Do we overcome the unexpected, as the world recommends, or undergo it?
In this episode, Jillian Benfield talks about her experience finding out she was going to have a child with disabilities and her new book – The Gift of the Unexpected – Discovering Who We Were Meant to Be When Life Goes Off Plan.
She will help us break down the following:
- False beliefs we’ve built around God and our identity.
- How we cannot avoid our pain, but how we can learn to feel it in a way that is healing.
- Discover how our internal transformation leads to external purpose when we undergo the unexpected.
God uses the unexpected to disorient us from a culture that values the prosperity gospel (control) and the American dream (achievement). Through His surprising gifts, believers learn how to relate to others’ pain and realize how valuable and significant they are.
Jillian wants you to know that:
“No matter what you’re going through, you’re invited to open this gift: The Gift of the Unexpected!”
Links mentioned in the episode:
Working Through Weariness: 6 Tools to Reclaim Goodness
5 Spiritual Comforts for Parents of Kids with Disabilities
Find more information about Our Guest
Jillian Benfield
Jillian Benfield is a former journalist and news anchor. She holds a broadcast journalism degree from the University of Georgia. As a freelance writer, her essays about living an unexpected life have appeared on sites such as TODAY, Good Morning America, Yahoo! News, and ABC News.
Jillian regularly advocates for the full inclusion of people with disabilities in her writings, in her community, and as a part of the National Down Syndrome Congress’s National Down Syndrome Advocacy Coalition.
Jillian, her husband, Andy, and their three children live on Florida’s Space Coast.
