I'm thrilled to welcome Niki Hardy to the show this week! Niki is the author of the Audie Award-nominated Breathe Again and One Minute Prayers for Women With Cancer. Her newest book, God, Can We Chat? A Daringly Honest Guide to Growing Closer to God, One Doubt at a Time, hit shelves in March, which I'm so excited to chat about today.
Niki has left corporate life, moved continents, gone to seminary, planted churches, launched businesses and nonprofits, and navigated seasons of deep loss, cancer, church hurt, and painful uncertainty. Through it all, she firmly believes that God loves a cheerful doubter.
In this conversation, we talk about what it means to bring your real questions and struggles to God, and how to navigate those seasons when it feels like He's silent. It's a rich and hope-filled reminder that joy can exist even in the hardest seasons.
4:30 – Niki 101
• Moving from the UK to North Carolina
• What led Niki to becoming an author
• Niki's family and love for nature
6:11 – The Cheerful Doubter
• Niki's struggle to reconcile her doubts
• Turning towards God in times of doubt
• How doubt and faith can coexist
12:51 – Walking in Doubt
• For the person that feels let down by God
• Practical steps for doubt walking
• The acronym "CHAT"
23:35 – The Legacy of Doubting Saints
• Peter walking on water
• Devotional elements and exercises Niki's book
• Holding doubts and joys together
29:08 – God, Can We Speed Chat?
• Rapid fire questions with Niki
• Where you can connect with Niki
• Getting your copy of God, Can We Chat?
FEATURED QUOTES
"I think God actually loves a cheerful doubter. I think he'd rather we came to him than we just slid out the side door."
"Feel free to question His presence and His provision and His providence and His goodness and His mercy, and cry out to Him, but turn towards him, not away from him."
"I think holding the doubt and the questions and the confusion in tension with the joy and the love and the faith that we do have is just such a healthy way of walking our faith journey out."
Learn more about Niki:
https://www.nikihardy.com/
Get your copy of God, Can We Chat?
https://www.nikihardy.com/godcanwechat
Niki on Social Media:
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/NikiHardyauthor/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/niki.hardy/?hl=en
Popular Podcasts
Las Culturistas with Matt Rogers and Bowen Yang
Ding dong! Join your culture consultants, Matt Rogers and Bowen Yang, on an unforgettable journey into the beating heart of CULTURE. Alongside sizzling special guests, they GET INTO the hottest pop-culture moments of the day and the formative cultural experiences that turned them into Culturistas. Produced by the Big Money Players Network and iHeartRadio.
Crime Junkie
Does hearing about a true crime case always leave you scouring the internet for the truth behind the story? Dive into your next mystery with Crime Junkie. Every Monday, join your host Ashley Flowers as she unravels all the details of infamous and underreported true crime cases with her best friend Brit Prawat. From cold cases to missing persons and heroes in our community who seek justice, Crime Junkie is your destination for theories and stories you won’t hear anywhere else. Whether you're a seasoned true crime enthusiast or new to the genre, you'll find yourself on the edge of your seat awaiting a new episode every Monday. If you can never get enough true crime... Congratulations, you’ve found your people. Follow to join a community of Crime Junkies! Crime Junkie is presented by audiochuck Media Company.
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.