193. Walking Through Illness and Crises, She Shares Stories of Healing

Married young and living happily as a homemaker and mom, her life was turned upside down when, at age 30, her husband shocked her with the news that he wanted a divorce. Dealing with the devastation, she began developing skills in resiliency and a faith that carried her through later health and personal crises. She also learned how to use her people skills to work as a recruiter, eventually heading up her own executive search firm.

Her company had become one of the most respected healthcare search firms in the country when Barbara began developing vague and varied symptoms, a sense of being un-well. “The doctor diagnosed me with an unusual, very rare disease, called Sjogren’s Syndrome (an immune system disorder). He said I would not be able to work again and told me go fill out my Social Security for disability. I just mentally could not, would not—I refused—to wrap my mind around that kind of life!” Thus began a faith journey that led her to a healer, and then to an exploration of the many healings that had occurred across generations in her family. It also led her to write a book.

“I think the biggest problem people have is fear. The big bad world, and all that can happen, is a huge source of fear for all of us. I cannot tell you how frightened I was as a 30-year-old (divorced) woman with a child to take care of! I faced two choices: surrender to my fears, or walk through them. Because I walked through them, I discovered a whole new world of success, and a whole new level of success in life, that I’d never experienced before.”

1. Develop a faith that can sustain you.

2. Face your fears and walk through them.

3. Realize that you are not alone. Somebody out there is going through the same thing.

4. Find supportive people and information; the Internet is an amazing resource.

The God I Never Knew, by Robert Morris

The Purpose-Driven Life, by Rick Warren

The Shack, by William Paul Young

My God Is in the Healing Business, Memoirs of a Family’s Healing Miracles & How to Receive Yours, by Barbara York McDaniel