Upheaval and Transition
About this Episode
Episode Summary
What has been one of the most life-changing events for you? Some may recall childhood moments or special memories with family while others turn to a traumatic event or accident that completely changed them. Katherine Catlett was in college when an accident occurred that changed her way of life. In the midst of her healing journey, God called her to move to a completely different state away from her friends and family. Join hosts Elisa Morgan and Vivian Mabuni as they learn Katherine’s story and how God showed up through it all during this God Hears Her conversation.
Episode Transcript
God Hears Her Podcast
Episode 157 – Upheaval and Transition with Katherine Catlett
Elisa Morgan & Vivian Mabuni with Katherine Catlett
[Music]
Katherine: I really wrestled with that in that time of, like, God, where were You? Like, were You… Did You not see this coming? Why weren’t You there? Why didn’t You keep this from happening? So, I think there was a lot of anger towards God. I had a lot of questions, but I also… He was the only thing that stayed the same. Like, everything in my life had been flipped upside down. Like I said, my whole world was quite literally spinning, but it had also completely stopped, but then there was God. And He was so solid and consistent, even when I was really bitter.
[Music]
Voice: You’re listening to God Hears Her, a podcast for women where we explore the stunning truth that God hears you, He sees you, and He loves you because you are His. Find out how these realities free you today on God Hears Her.
Vivian: Hey, everyone, welcome to God Hears Her. I’m Vivian Mabuni.
Elisa: And I’m Elisa Morgan. Today, we’re talking with someone who’s very near and dear to my heart. Katherine Catlett was in college when we first met. We got to know each other right before a tragic accident that changed her life.
Vivian: Katherine is a social media manager and strategist for Reclaim Today, a creative effort for young adults through Our Daily Bread Ministries. I’m really excited to get to know her and learn more about her healing journey after the accident. But first, let’s get to know Katherine during this God Hears Her conversation by asking her: what was it like growing up in the south?
Katherine: I grew up forty-five minutes east of Knoxville, so in Tennessee, and then I went to school in Alabama, and then from Alabama I recently moved to Grand Rapids.
Elisa: So, growing up near Knoxville, what was your family like and what were you like?
Katherine: Oh, man. I mean, I was a happy child, my family is very close, so we lived in the same town as my grandmother pretty much just right down the street. My mom’s side of the family is in Ohio, but yeah, really close family. I have an older brother, he’s twenty-five, his name is Parker, and we’re close, too, you know, like brother and sister, how they can be.
Elisa: Yeah, yeah.
Katherine: Middle school was a nightmare, as it is for anyone…
Elisa: Right.
Katherine: … High school was, half of high school was a little bit of a nightmare, but the second half of that was good, and I loved college. College was great. And I love post-grad even more.
Elisa: What made the second half of high school better?
Katherine: Jesus.
Vivian: Oh, really?
Katherine: I mean, I grew up in a Christian home, so we went to church on Sundays, and it was good until I just started to kind of, like, wander my own way for a little bit. I don’t know how long that time period was that I was not in church, but it was… it was a good bit…
Elisa: Okay.
Katherine: … Wasn’t hanging out with the greatest of people or making the best decisions… and then eventually I hit a wall, and that was a pretty dark time. But I had a good friend named Amanda, and she drove out of her way every Sunday to pick me up and take me to church…
Elisa: Woah.
Katherine: … and that’s what kind of, like, changed my life, and I remember that day and God just being, like, you are made for more… more than the guys that you’re dating, and you’re made for more than the choices you’re making, and then I got baptized my senior year of high school.
Vivian: Wow.
Elisa: I think those teen years are so pivotal for most of us…
Katherine: Yeah.
Elisa: … right? And you went off to college, and what was your major and what did you do in college?
Katherine: Yeah, so my major was communication studies, and I loved it, and I cheered all four years of college…
Elisa: Cheered as in…
Katherine: Yes, cheerleader…
Elisa: … cheerleading.
Katherine: Yeah.
Elisa: Were you a cheerleader, Viv?
Vivian: I was a cheerleader in high school…
Katherine: Nice.
Elisa: I was a cheerleader in high school.
Vivian: … Ready? Okay.
Katherine: There you go.
Vivian: Yes.
Elisa: One, two, one, two, yeah…
Katherine: Yeah, but it’s something that I did, I started in, like, the third grade, I think…
Vivian: Wow.
Elisa: Wow.
Katherine: … I mean, I did it, I cheered for about fifteen years…
Elisa: She’s serious.
Katherine: … so, all through, I did competitive cheer, too, as well as school cheer. I did UCA stuff, which was travelling and teaching other girls how to cheer, and a lot of mentoring which I loved. Best job ever… er, aside from the job I have now [laughter]. But yeah, and then I cheered through college, too.
Vivian: What was your relationship with God like during college?
Katherine: So, I went to Samford University, it’s a private Christian school in Birmingham, Alabama, and it definitely looked different. It just matured a lot more than it was in high school. You know, it’s a lot easier, I went to a public high school, and it was just massive. And so, going from that environment to, like, a Christian college was… it was a little bit easier to find people who were rooted in God and His love for them during that time in my life.
Vivian: A lot of times when I meet people who’ve grown up in Christian homes…
Katherine: Yes.
Vivian: … that turning point where faith becomes your own…
Katherine: Right.
Vivian: … that changes everything. I mean…
Katherine: It does.
Vivian: … the trajectory, the way we look at life, and so…
Katherine: It does.
Vivian: … apart from Amanda, was there any other circumstances that, like, led to your owning your own faith?
Katherine: Yeah, so I think definitely I lived life without Jesus for that time in high school, and then knowing what life is like with Him, there was another lady that I had met my freshman year of college, her name was Jenny, all of my professors were huge encouragers in that way. My grandparents, too, were huge influences, and my mom also, I remember, like, getting up every morning and she… either she was doing her devotion, or if I was up before she left the house, I could see where she had been…
Vivian: Wow.
Katherine: … doing her devotion…
Elisa: Isn’t that powerful example?
Katherine: … in the morning. Yeah.
Elisa: I’m hearing a patchwork of faithfulness around your life. Now, in college, something happened…
Katherine: Yes.
Elisa: … that really shaped you, I would even say maybe transformed you.
Katherine: Yeah. So, it was spring semester of my junior year of college, and like I said, I was, you know, I cheered all through school, and I was one of the ones they would, like, throw up in the air, and I was just doing all the things, and I was very fearless, too, cause I had been doing it for so long that I trusted my body to know what to do. Everything at that point to me was muscle memory. I was, like, I’ve been training for this. Even when I didn’t cheer, I was still doing gymnastics for years before I even started, like, the cheerleading portion of that. But we were trying a new skill at practice, and it did not go very well… It’s called a tuck basket. I’m sure if you’ve cheered before, you… you may or may not know what that is, but they throw me up in the air, I’m, like, free flying doing a backflip, and they caught the lower half of my body, so they caught my legs and my hips, but my head, neck, and shoulders was not caught. So, I’m…
Vivian: Oh, Kat.
Katherine: … you know, up, and I’m spinning and I’m rotating, and then… which I think almost catching my legs and my hips made it worse…
Elisa: Probably.
Katherine: … cause then it made the upper half of my body kind of nosedive…
Elisa: Yeah, more and more momentum.
Katherine: … into the ground, and no one broke my fall with that part of, yeah…
Vivian: Oh, my goodness…
Katherine: … so, that’s… that’s the accident, which obviously resulted in a really serious concussion that… I mean, my whole world was literally spinning, I mean, hello vertigo… but it had also completely stopped.
Elisa: To have that happen, which is more of a freak accident…
Katherine: Right.
Elisa: … and be dropped…
Katherine: Yeah.
Vivian: Right.
Elisa: … and then have this concussion…
Katherine: Right.
Elisa: … take us into what that was like for you. Did you stay in school, where did you go…
Vivian: Yeah.
Elisa: … what did you do?
Katherine: It was so painful, and not physically painful, there was a lot of trauma and there was a lot of grief, and I feel like the best way I know how to explain it is that, you know, we talk about grieving the loss of, like, a loved one. A part of myself in the gym that night died. Like, that’s how I explain it to the people, cause it was such a huge part of who I was as a person…
Vivian: Yeah.
Elisa: Sure.
Katherine: … it was a huge part of my identity…
Elisa: You’re talking about cheering?
Katherine: Cheering, yeah. Yeah, it was a huge part of my identity and who I was as a person, and so to have that stripped of me, I was so vulnerable.
Elisa: Did they tell you you couldn’t ever cheer again?
Katherine: They didn’t tell me that, but I think everyone knew except for me…
Vivian: Wow.
Katherine: … cause in my mind, I was, like, oh, like, you know, in… in sports, it’s like no pain, no gain mentality, so I was like, oh, I’ll be back by August, this had happened in March. I was like, I’ll be back by August and I’ll be totally back to normal. Absolutely not. About two weeks after it happened, I had to go home. So, I saw the trainer, and then the trainer was like you’re not getting, like, I saw them for two weeks, and they were like you’re not getting any better, we’re going to transfer you to a… a concussion specialist at the hospital, so then I went there, and I just couldn’t take care of myself. My roommates were helping me shower and…
Vivian: Yeah.
Katherine: … driving me places. I couldn’t go to class, and so…
Elisa: Were you dizzy, or what…
Katherine: Oh, yeah. Even if I shut my eyes, it was just, like, the room was spinning and it just never… it just never let up. So, two weeks after it happened, I went home. And then thought…
Vivian: Wow.
Katherine: … okay, like, I’ll eventually be able to go back and finish out my semester, but that didn’t happen either. So, I was home, I had to take incompletes in all of my classes, cause I couldn’t do my schoolwork.
Vivian: Right.
Katherine: And every couple of weeks, we were actually, all of my care was in Birmingham, so we were driving from Tennessee to Birmingham to go see the neurologist every three to four weeks at that point. I would… had to go to physical therapy, speech therapy, cognitive-behavioral therapy, brain MRI, neck X-rays, I mean, you name it and I probably did it.
Vivian: Wow. That is huge, and it actually, surprisingly, my daughter has dealt with concussions…
Katherine: Okay.
Vivian: … and we realized later that she had had previous concussions…
Katherine: Oh, my gosh. Yeah.
Vivian: … that we weren’t aware of from soccer and from PE, but she got one at volleyball camp, and then reinjured, and so it’s just… so, my heart just goes out to you with the isolation…
Katherine: Oh, my gosh.
Vivian: … to go from community where you’re known and you have an active life, and then to have to go home, and then even a car ride, I imagine that was excruciating…
Katherine: Right. Yeah.
Vivian: … Wow. So, how would you describe your emotional state, your physical state, and even your spiritual state as you were going through this.
Katherine: My emotional state was not… was not good at all, especially coping with, like, I was never really an anxious person. I mean, I had, like, anxiety, like an… a normal human being, but I was never, like, constantly on edge or having panic attacks or anxiety attacks, and after the accident, there was so much trauma, I think, that I was experiencing that I remember having my first panic attack, and it was just over someone, like, I think we had a meeting or something cheer related just sent me into that, like, sense of panic within an instant. It was so isolating. If you have a broken leg, there’s a cast on it and it’s obvious. You would look at me and think I was fine…
Vivian: Right.
Katherine: … and so, it was, like, my injury and my pain was invisible…
Vivian: Right.
Katherine: … and that’s, I think, what made it really difficult. But with a brain injury, I mean, you can’t even binge watch your favorite tv show, I mean, you sit in a dark room with no stimulation and that’s it…
Vivian: Yeah.
Elisa: You couldn’t read…
Katherine: No…
Elisa: … you couldn’t be on your phone…
Katherine: … no, and I did vision therapy, too, that’s why it would trigger headaches when I would try to do schoolwork because my eyes weren’t working together, and so, no I… and I love to read, so I…
Elisa: Yeah.
Katherine: … I couldn’t read, I couldn’t exercise, everything I love to do had been taken away by no choice of my own…
Vivian: Wow.
Katherine: … and it was unexpected, it wasn’t something that I had saw coming.
Elisa: You lost cheering, you lost school, you lost control of your body…
Katherine: Yeah.
Elisa: … and your life.
Katherine: … yeah.
Vivian: And community.
Elisa: Community.
Katherine: Time management. I couldn’t drive for ten months, so for almost a year I wasn’t driving, which was horrible, cause there’s that obvious loss of independence, but within that big loss is you can’t listen to your music in the car, and you can’t take yourself to the grocery store, and then there’s even under that is, like…
Elisa: Yeah.
Katherine: … I hadn’t navigated a grocery store parking lot in almost a year…
Vivian: Oh, wow.
Katherine: … Yeah, just a lot of loss. There’s the big obvious one to people, but then there’s all those other little things that people don’t always see.
Vivian: So, how was your posture and heart toward the Lord during that time?
Katherine: My posture towards… I think I was angry, and I’ve always said that I’m not an angry person, which is such a… lie. Cause I’m not an angry person, but we all, at times, get frustrated or feel…
Vivian: Sure.
Katherine: … anger…
Elisa: Totally.
Katherine: … and so, I really wrestled with that in that time of, like, God, where were You? Like, were You… Did You not see this coming? Why weren’t You there? Why didn’t You keep this from happening? So, I think there was a lot of anger towards God. I had a lot of questions, but I also… He was the only thing that stayed the same. Like, everything in my life had been flipped upside down. Like I said, my whole world was quite literally spinning, but it had also completely stopped, but then there was God. And He was so solid and consistent, even when I was really bitter…
Vivian: Yes.
Katherine: … and angry.
Elisa: What helped you in that process of healing? What gave you hope, or how’d you hang in there?
Katherine: Yeah, so I… I did have quite a few friends that brought the community to me, so I had, like, a couple of friends that would send, like, care packages to me in the mail of just, like, cozy pajamas or a nice blanket or, like, self-care things that were really helpful. I had one friend send me a picture of campus, and she was like I just can’t stop thinking about how much you would love being outside today. I can just picture you sitting in the sun and being, like, I’m going to go be outside and be a sunflower today.
Elisa: That’s so you.
Katherine: So, just… yeah, so, just know that people were thinking of me in that time was really good, and also, I had great therapists throughout this whole process. I also did counseling, too, which was on top of the cognitive-behavioral therapy, those were two separate processes. But that was really helpful just to process the trauma…
Vivian: Yeah.
Katherine: … and the grief that I was experiencing. Just letting myself feel it, you know, especially when you have a head injury that affects everything including your emotions, so you can’t… you don’t really have control over… it’s like a roller coaster all the time. It was, like, intense anxiety and then it was like, okay, like, I think I’m feeling okay, but just having people around me to support me in that and just allowing myself to feel whatever I needed to feel without judgment.
Vivian: How do you discern how much to even share?
Katherine: I had to learn to advocate for myself, which I wasn’t great at before, so I would say that’s something that I learned how to do, but just, my voice matters and what I have to say matters, and what I need matters, you know. And I also learned in that process of, like, if I do the hard work of showing up for my healing, like, if I honor my body, it’s going to honor me in return… and then if I don’t put in the time and the effort to do these things, to heal, then it’s not going to get better. You know? Cause there was a time where I was, like, I’m going to feel sixty percent normal for the rest of my life…
Elisa: Wow, yup.
Katherine: … and that was really discouraging, but just learning to advocate for myself, and telling people, like, what I need and setting boundaries of, like, I would really love to go shopping today, but I’m feeling exhausted, but please ask me next time.
Elisa: That’s so good, that’s so good…
Katherine: Yeah.
Elisa: … because sometimes we’ll just say I’m exhausted, and we won’t say please ask me next time…
Katherine: Right, yeah.
Elisa: … because then people’ll think well, that… you know, she’s…
Katherine: You don’t want to go.
Elisa: Yeah, you don’t want to go.
Katherine: Yeah. But it was… it’s not that want to go, I… I wanted more than anything to go…
Vivian: Yes.
Katherine: … especially cause I had missed out on so much, and that’s something I’m still learning, too, cause I still definitely have things that affect me from that, even with exercise now, of just knowing my limits and just accepting that it’s different than it used to be… Different doesn’t mean bad, it just means different. In losing parts of myself that I love, I’ve also discovered new parts of myself that I love just as much.
Elisa: So, you went back to school eventually…
Katherine: I did.
Elisa: … but were you behind in your class, did your friends graduate ahead of you?
Katherine: Oh yeah…
Elisa: Yeah
Katherine: … I was way behind…
Elisa: Yeah.
Katherine: … because I took incompletes in my spring semester classes, so I went into my senior year, I think I was in twenty-three credit hours, so…
Elisa: That’s a lot.
Katherine: … not only was I in my senior courses, but I was trying to make up for my spring semester courses that I didn’t finish, and it was a horrible time.
Elisa: Yeah.
Katherine: Cause I was still trying to heal…
Vivian: Yes.
Katherine: … you know, it had still only been some months, and I still went back. So, I went back to school for my senior year, was in twenty-three credit hours, and I still went back for cheer, but I couldn’t physically participate, but I was showing up to every practice, every game…
Vivian: Wow.
Katherine: … every workout, and I was just there, watching.
Elisa: Take us forward, then, you graduate, how did you feel as you graduated, and what were your questions about the future, and some of this is going to sound very normal…
Vivan: Yeah.
Elisa: … and some of it is going to sound unique.
Katherine: So, graduating felt like a miracle. I had so many people who told me… they didn’t outright tell me that I couldn’t do it, but everyone was shocked when I did do it. And then, during that same time we had moved out of what I had considered to be my childhood home, so that…
Vivian: Wow.
Katherine: … was in November. We had been in that house for seven years, my parents just called me one day and they were like hey, so we might be moving. We had to be out by December 24th…
Vivian: Oh, my goodness.
Katherine: … the day before Christmas, and then my serious boyfriend and I broke up. So, we had been together all of college, for about three years, so the accident happens, my family is moving, and I was so angry about that. My boyfriend and I broke up, I have friends who are getting into relationships, all these things, so it felt like my world was falling apart but everyone else was straight chilling.
Elisa: You were the bridesmaid in twenty-eight weddings, yeah.
Katherine: Quite literally, yeah.
Elisa: Yes, yes.
Katherine: Learning how to celebrate others when wishing it was you is a…
Vivian: Yeah.
Katherine: … hard lesson to learn. But yeah, so, it was a miracle that I graduated, and I was scared because when the accident happened, I was looking for internships. And then the accident happened, so I couldn’t have any internships, so I felt like I… I just felt so behind. I felt very unprepared, but I ended up making a connection at a basketball game with my first employer, actually, when I graduated, so then I worked in the wedding and event industry for a little bit.
Vivian: Wow.
Katherine: And I started straight after graduation, too.
Vivian: So, how are you doing now?
Katherine: Oh, my gosh. This is the most I’ve felt like myself since the accident happened. So, now it’s been two and a half years, this is the happiest I’ve been…
Vivian: Wow.
Katherine: … since that… since the accident happened, since graduating and the move and the breakup and all of the… all the things. All the upheaval.
Vivian: Tell us the story of you coming to Grand Rapids.
Katherine: From the south, yup.
Elisa: Having never been to Grand Rapids.
Katherine: Good old… yeah, I had never visited this state until I came here, actually. But yeah, so I think it was around July where I just started feeling unsettled in my spirit…
Elisa: In this wedding job thing.
Katherine: … yeah, and I felt like I had lost my inner peace, and I valued that quite a bit, cause I feel like that’s God’s way of being like you’re in the right space. And for the first part of that job it was challenging but I had that peace still, but then it was gone. So, Elisa and I actually had a FaceTime call and I was like you know, something just doesn’t feel right. I feel like there’s something else. So, I updated my resume, sent it to her, and she connected me here, and I applied for a job, and it moved really quickly, and then I got the job and moved.
Vivian: Wow.
Katherine: And it… and I… it’s, I think it was like July to, like, the mid-August, so it really only took, like, a month and a half, and I remember before any of that had ever happened, I kept hearing in my spirit to go, and it was before I knew the job was available. I was like go where? Like, what, go where?
Vivian: Wow.
Katherine: And the job came up, and I connected with my now boss, and I went through, you know, the normal interview process, got the job and then moved about a month later.
Elisa: Yeah, I want you to go into that. I remember these days, they were very exciting and terrifying…
Katherine: Yeah, yeah.
Elisa: … at the same time. So, what went through your head after you got it, and now you need to rearrange your entire existence?
Katherine: Yeah, so after I got the job there were moments of, like, extreme… It was a lot of highs, extreme highs and extreme lows. So, oh, my gosh, I’m moving to Michigan. I’ve never visited the state, but I’m so excited, and I know, like, something in me knew it was meant for me. Like, of course there’s that what if I don’t get it, but, like, deep in my spirit, I just… I knew. And so, I was like… I was, like, screaming, so excited, but then it would be, like, intense anxiety. I was like I have a month to find a place to live. I will be so far from all of my family and my friends I have built… My whole life is here, and I’m going to be all the way up there. And I hadn’t even visited the state until I came to look for housing. I don’t have friends here, people assumed that I had some type of family, no. Like, I didn’t have anything or anyone. I started over from scratch.
Vivian: Wow.
Katherine: So, a lot of it was extreme highs and extreme lows.
Elisa: And still coming off a brain injury.
Katherine: Yeah.
Vivian: I can only imagine some of the anxiety because of the physical part…
Katherine: Right.
Vivian: … Like, it’s one thing to go…
Katherine: Yeah.
Vivian: … and make a big change and move across country without the brain injury…
Katherine: Right.
Vivian: … that alone is already so big, but then put on top of that, and then to not have a community that knows that part of your story…
Katherine: Right. Right.
Vivian: … unless you choose to tell someone about that. What was that like for you…
Katherine: Yeah.
Vivian: … and how did you decide who to talk to?
Katherine: So, it was… cause when I moved here, like I said, I didn’t know anybody, so I was just kind of, like hello. I was like here I am. Getting plugged into a church, though, was huge, and I’m a people pleaser, so coming with this move, I am always intentional about who I choose to be friends with, but I was even more so coming into this. I really wanted to focus on having healthy friendships with people…
Elisa: So, tell me about that.
Katherine: Yeah.
Elisa: How did you discern that?
Katherine: I think because I had been, and this is primarily, I… I’m still super close with a lot of my college friends, so this is primarily high school I would say, but I had had so many unhealthy friendships, anything that made me feel unsettled, I was like you know what? This is just not for me, and that’s okay. Getting plugged into a church is one of the first things I did. I also tried out, like, a running club, and then I realized that they ran year-round in, like, a foot of snow, and I was like you know what? I think I’m going to stick to… not do that.
Elisa: In… inside. I need an inside sport.
Katherine: Yeah. We’re going to do something else… but I knew the longer I waited when I got here to get plugged in the harder it was going to be. So, I got here, and I immediately was, like, you can either sink or you can swim…
Vivian: Wow.
Katherine: … You have a choice. And I chose to show up every day. Even if I had a bad attitude, you know, but God met me there…
Vivian: Yeah.
Katherine: … there were so many events that I had shown up to with a bad attitude, because I was like God, I’m sick of being the new girl, it’s the same story. It’s like being a freshman in college all over again, but this time the social events aren’t handed to you on a platter. You have to seek them out yourself and do your own research, and then find the energy to go after you’ve worked a whole day…
Vivian: Right.
Katherine: … and I would show up, and God always met me there. And I learned that He’s not… if He calls you somewhere, and if you go, He’s never going to, like, abandon you to fend for yourself. Like, He’s going to be there, too.
Vivian: Are you still doing anything practically for your… recovery for your brain injury?
Katherine: So, I… I was diagnosed post-accident with a condition called POTS. POTS is short for, and I’m totally, I don’t know how to pronounce this at all, so please bear with me, but it’s postural ortho-something tach-cartria… we’re just going to stop there. But it’s POTS and it’s short for something…
Elisa: Okay.
Katherine: … but basically my brain and my heart don’t communicate…
Elisa: Oh, gosh. That’s a little scary.
Vivian: Okay.
Katherine: … as well anymore… So, it’s like, with my vestib-… it was caused by the trauma of my brain injury, so that’s the… and that… that’s not something that goes away, it’s just something I learn to manage and live with.
Elisa: Okay, I’m going to just pause, it’s called postural…
Katherine: There you go.
Elisa: … orthostatic tachycardia syndrome, so if anybody’s listening and… it’s a condition that causes a number of symptoms when you transition from lying down to standing up, like fast heart rate, dizziness, fatigue, and certain treatments can help it, but… that’s a… that’s a scary…
Katherine: Yeah.
Elisa: … thing to adjust to as well.
Katherine: Yeah.
Vivian: How did you even realize that that was something you were dealing with?
Katherine: Yeah, so, that was actually something they thought to test for when I was seeing the… the concussion specialist, cause they were like you’re so dizzy, and so, like, they tested me. So, laying down my… my resting heartrate is low, but it was like sixty-something, as soon as I would stand up, within a minute it was, like, in the hundreds…
Elisa: Oh gosh.
Vivian: Wow.
Katherine: … like just from that transition from laying down…
Elisa: Okay, so real irregular, right?
Katherine: Oh, yeah. Yeah. And so, that’s just been something to navigate. So, I would say that’s the main thing that I’m still… Cause, you know, I didn’t have it before…
Vivian: Right.
Katherine: … and it’s something I’m just learning to live with and manage. Thankfully my case of POTS is not as severe as it could be… I’m very grateful for that, because it… I mean, the whole accident should have been worse. Like, it’s…
Vivian: Wow.
Katherine: … a gift that I am functioning like a normal human being. But that would… that would be the biggest thing, was just navigating it.
Vivian: Well, what advice would you have to listeners who are in the process right now of being in a big change… just from what you have walked through, what would you recommend if… someone were to ask you?
[Music]
Katherine: Yeah, I would just remind them that you’re made for more than, you know, for me with the accident and cheer it was, like, okay I’m made for more than what I can do at practice or at a workout. I’m made to show the love and tenderness of God. I’m created to share my story to encourage and empower others on their journey of becoming who God has created and called them to be. And if you show up to what God has called you to, He’s going to meet you there. He’s not going to lead you somewhere that’s void of His presence, and He’s a Man of His Word and He keeps His promises.
[Music]
Elisa: God does show up every time, even when we think He’s not answering.
Vivian: I really enjoyed getting to know Katherine. Well, before we go, be sure to check out our website to find a link for the Reclaim Today website. You can find that and more at godhearsher.org. That’s godhearsher.org.
Elisa: Thanks for joining us. And don’t forget, God hears you, He sees you, and He loves you because you are His.
[Music]
Vivian: Today’s episode was engineered by Anne Stevens and produced by Jade Gustman and Mary Jo Clark. We also want to thank Jody and Brian for all their help and support. Thanks everyone.
[Music]
Elisa: God Hears Her is a production of Our Daily Bread Ministries.
Show Notes
- “He was the only thing that stayed the same. Everything in my life had been flipped upside down—my whole world was quite literally spinning—but it had also completely stopped. But then there was God.” —Katherine Catlett
- “[God] was so solid and consistent even when I was really bitter and angry.” —Katherine Catlett
- “I had to learn to advocate for myself… My voice matters. And what I have to say matters. And what I need matters.” —Katherine Catlett
- “In losing parts of myself that I loved, I also discovered parts of myself that I love just as much.” —Katherine Catlett
- “If God calls you somewhere, and if you go, He’s never going to abandon you to fend for yourself. He’s going to be there too.” —Katherine Catlett
Links Mentioned
- Katherine’s Instagram
- Reclaim Today’s Website
- God Hears Her website
- God Hears Her email sign-up
- Subscribe on iTunes!
- Elisa’s Instagram: elisamorganauthor
- Eryn’s Instagram: eryneddy
About the Guest(s)
Katherine Catlett
Katherine Catlett is the social media manager and strategist for Reclaim Today, a part of Our Daily Bread Ministries. She graduated in 2022 from Samford University in Birmingham, Alabama and was a cheerleader all four years of college. She has a deep passion for writing, mentoring, and encouraging others on their journey to become who God has created and called them to be.
Comments
More Episodes
Get Connected
Sign up to get early access to new book releases, podcasts, blog updates, and more!
One Response
This is quiet interesting . It is always good to lean on God,He is our creator,He knows everything about us,good or bad, without him,we are nothing. It’s interesting to know that whenever you go through tough times, one learns to trust in Jesus and grows. Thanks for sharing this beautiful stories