Laura Story's story
Hey friends! I wanted to share this testimony of faithfulness in the midst of heartache with you. I've been listening to Laura's music for a few years now, and it truly speaks deeply to my soul. So thankful the Lord has given her this heart for Him and the things of eternal significance. It has taught me a great deal about the joy in suffering.
“My husband was diagnosed with a brain tumor four to five years ago,” she says. “He’s gone through an enormous amount of healing, but at the same time there are some things that haven’t fully healed like vision and memory. We’re learning what life looks like with disabilities.
“At first you just look and say, ‘Why? Why didn’t you just fix it, God? You’re all powerful and all loving… just fix it.’
“I’ve spent so much time shaking my fist at God, but I feel like He keeps grabbing that hand that I’m shaking at Him and peeling back my fingers and saying, ‘Laura, you need to release it into my hands. I’ve been faithful to you. And now just because you don’t understand what I’m doing, you’re starting to doubt me?’
“We still have so many more questions than answers,” she says. “’God, how is this all going to end?’ We don’t know, but we trust that the things He allows into our lives are filtered through his loving hands. We hold onto the promise of scripture, ‘When you walk through the valley, I will be with you.’ We’ve gotten to experience Him in a deep and more intimate way.”
Martin and Laura were both 28 when the tumor was diagnosed. It wasn’t cancerous, but was growing aggressively and invasively inside his brain. At the time, they’d been married less than two years.
“We did the premarital counseling and they told us how to balance our checkbook and to say you’re sorry even when you don’t mean it,” she says with a small laugh. “But no one tells you how to respond when one of you is diagnosed with a life-threatening illness.
“I thought it would all get back to normal,” she continues. “Here’s the road… we’re gonna take a detour. About a year into it, my sister said to me, ‘You know, I think the detour is actually the road.’”
In her disarmingly honest way, she adds, “It’s been a hard road. We’re learning that when someone is living with chronic illness or disabilities, it’s getting adjusted to a completely new normal,” she says. “And then, “But I can’t say it hasn’t been without joys. We spend an enormous amount of time together. He probably gets so annoyed with me! But how many couple do you hear saying at the end, ‘Man, I wish I’d spent less time with my spouse.’ It’s never that,” she says. “Spending time with Martin obviously makes me happy, but it makes be a better person. That’s the blessing of it.”
And that’s what courses through the tracks on Blessings. Like finding joy in the time together or growing stronger in the gift of empathy, Laura has managed to find that one spot of light or that one glimmer of hope or peace and translate it to song.
“At first you just look and say, ‘Why? Why didn’t you just fix it, God? You’re all powerful and all loving… just fix it.’
“I’ve spent so much time shaking my fist at God, but I feel like He keeps grabbing that hand that I’m shaking at Him and peeling back my fingers and saying, ‘Laura, you need to release it into my hands. I’ve been faithful to you. And now just because you don’t understand what I’m doing, you’re starting to doubt me?’
“We still have so many more questions than answers,” she says. “’God, how is this all going to end?’ We don’t know, but we trust that the things He allows into our lives are filtered through his loving hands. We hold onto the promise of scripture, ‘When you walk through the valley, I will be with you.’ We’ve gotten to experience Him in a deep and more intimate way.”
Martin and Laura were both 28 when the tumor was diagnosed. It wasn’t cancerous, but was growing aggressively and invasively inside his brain. At the time, they’d been married less than two years.
“We did the premarital counseling and they told us how to balance our checkbook and to say you’re sorry even when you don’t mean it,” she says with a small laugh. “But no one tells you how to respond when one of you is diagnosed with a life-threatening illness.
“I thought it would all get back to normal,” she continues. “Here’s the road… we’re gonna take a detour. About a year into it, my sister said to me, ‘You know, I think the detour is actually the road.’”
In her disarmingly honest way, she adds, “It’s been a hard road. We’re learning that when someone is living with chronic illness or disabilities, it’s getting adjusted to a completely new normal,” she says. “And then, “But I can’t say it hasn’t been without joys. We spend an enormous amount of time together. He probably gets so annoyed with me! But how many couple do you hear saying at the end, ‘Man, I wish I’d spent less time with my spouse.’ It’s never that,” she says. “Spending time with Martin obviously makes me happy, but it makes be a better person. That’s the blessing of it.”
And that’s what courses through the tracks on Blessings. Like finding joy in the time together or growing stronger in the gift of empathy, Laura has managed to find that one spot of light or that one glimmer of hope or peace and translate it to song.
“A lot of my songwriting isn’t an idea or concept that I’ve mastered,” she says. “It’s something that I need to hear for myself every night. I need to constantly be reminding myself that there is a peace in the storm if we keep our eyes on Jesus.
