From Broken to Blessed: My Story of Redemption

Raw vulnerability meets divine grace in this deeply personal season premiere. My journey from a solid church foundation to a devastating unequally yoked marriage reveals how easily we can stray from our spiritual moorings when seeking love and purpose in all the wrong places. 

The pain of betrayal, divorce, and watching my ex-husband's life seemingly fall into perfect place while mine lay in shambles nearly broke me. Yet it was precisely in this darkness that God's light shone brightest. Through tearful surrender at the altar with my childhood pastor, I heard the words that would begin my transformation: "You may have chosen this road, but you didn't choose this battlefield. God will equip you, lay it down and leave it."

My path wasn't immediately straight—I stumbled through attempts to numb my pain with distractions and shallow relationships. But a second surrender, more complete than the first, cleared space for God's redemptive work. Just five days after laying everything down, a simple text message started a new chapter that would lead to restoration beyond what I could imagine. The same altar where I had twice surrendered my brokenness became the place where I entered a God-centered marriage that transformed my mess into ministry.

This story isn't about my mistakes or even my recovery—it's about a faithful God who never left, who specializes in beauty from ashes, and who redeems what seems irredeemable. If you're feeling lost in your own storm or wondering if you've strayed too far, this episode offers the hope that God is already in your midst, waiting to transform your story. The miracles happen not despite our brokenness, but often right in the middle of it. All He needs is your willingness.

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Episode Transcript

Heather C (00:02):
In the midst and I welcome you today as your host,
heather Cox.
This podcast is about to bereal and raw and today's episode
is pretty emotional.
But let me tell you somethingbeing obedient to Christ and
allowing His power and His loveto move through my story, it's

(00:26):
worth telling.
It took me a long time torecognize that and to believe
that my story was worthy.
But here's the key it's notabout my story, it's about what
God did through my story.
And as I have looked back overthe course of my entire life, I
can confidently say he has beenin the midst.

(00:49):
Grab a tissue, you're probablygoing to need it Because through
my story of redemption andrestoration, god proves time and
time again that his grace issufficient.
Well, I appreciate you ridingon this journey with me.
His grace is sufficient.
Well, I appreciate you ridingon this journey with me.
And for the next 12 episodes inthis season, I hope you find

(01:10):
Christ in your storm.
I hope you find the love andthe desires that he has for your
heart, because I'm telling you,we may be in a waiting season,
but he's been waiting on us toanswer.
I love you.
And here we go the firstepisode of In the Midst, a

(01:30):
podcast where we bring Jesusinto every messy, beautiful,
heartbreaking and grace-filledmoment of real life.
You will not ever understandhow grateful I am that you're
here, your support, yourattention, but, most of all,
your heart.
This podcast was born out ofstorms and healing and something

(01:52):
I had to be obedient to, out ofa hard-won truth and out of the
presence of a faithful God whonever left my side.
I don't know if you know mepersonally, but sometimes,
thinking back through the courseof my life, I asked myself the
question why, god?

(02:13):
Why did you stay?
I was raised in church Literallyevery time the doors were open,
every time there was an event,a baby shower, a wedding.
My parents were one of thefirst to volunteer To serve the
community in a capacity that Ican't even explain A servant's
heart, something that I'm sograteful that my mom and dad

(02:37):
blessed me with.
I'm the granddaughter ofReverend Audie Grady and I'm
going to be emotional, andthat's where I want you to feel
the realness.
She was faithful, she didn'twant to answer her call, but she
did Of a little country church,peat Ridge Assembly.
For over 25 years she servedthe congregation, the community

(03:03):
and even my family, and that'swhere it all began.
My parents were the songleaders.
I can still hear the tambourineshaking and the voices lifting.
It's just something about thoselittle country churches.
I gave my heart to Jesus at sixin that tiny little sanctuary.
At six, in that tiny littlesanctuary.

(03:28):
I was a lucky one, a blessed one, provided a solid foundation,
but, like many, I lost sight OfJesus In my teen years, my
college years.
I went searching for a love,identity and purpose in all the

(03:52):
wrong places and because of alot of those decisions, a lot of
those bad choices, not only didI lead others around me into
the same pits, it led me to avery unequally yoked marriage,

(04:13):
something that I will continueto face daily.
Yes, I have two beautifuldaughters.
I am forever thankful because,just as it says, there's beauty
in the ashes, and they both arethe beauty of the ashes.
I never understood whatunequally yoked meant until I

(04:35):
was in it.
My first marriage was emotional, it was mental, it was physical
.
We played church.
We checked all the boxes.
Our lives physical.
We played church.
We checked all the boxes.
Our lives weren't built onChrist and they certainly
weren't centered on him.
I was desperate for peace.

(04:55):
I knew what foundation lookedlike, but I had no idea what it
really meant to walk with Jesusin the day-to-day anymore.
There were multiple affairs,deep betrayal and a kind of pain
I wouldn't wish on anyone.
Did I deserve it?
Did I throw gas on the fire?

(05:17):
Sometimes, yeah, but eventuallythat unequally yoked marriage,
despite the two beautiful humanbeings that it gave, came
divorce, something that I neverwanted to face.
It wasn't in the plan, butneither was the marriage.

(05:37):
I was broken, humiliated.
I failed, exhausted.
How much more could I put asmile on my face?
How can I hide the bruises andthe pain?
I couldn't save it, I couldn'tfix it.
But, guys, there's.

(05:58):
Sometimes we have to realizewe're not the fixer, we're not
the savior, and sometimes it'sin the dead mist of a storm and
a battle that we didn'tnecessarily choose.
Choose, but because of ourchoices.

(06:26):
That's where it led us to.
At that point I ran to someone Iknew had always represented
Jesus to me.
He wasn't perfect.
I couldn't face my parents, Icouldn't be truthful on all the
things that had taken place, notjust because the relationship,
but because of the relationshipsI had created, the character
that I had laid to the side, myheart, you know as a kid we hear

(06:53):
just hide His Word in yourheart, hide His Word in your
heart.
And, guys, let me tell yousomething.
It is so true I can rememberbeing on my knees begging God,
please change my story, changethis, god.
I love you.
I don't understand.
I do love my friends.

(07:16):
I haven't spoken to them in awhile.
I do love my family, but Ican't go see them.
But it was in the moment of painand exhaustion and hurt and
betrayal that I realized Icouldn't even put my own pieces

(07:36):
back together.
I walked into the office of mychildhood pastor, uncle Spence
Guys.
I didn't even know he wasn't myreal uncle until I was eight.
You know those family membersthat are friends, but they're
family and you, just you embraceit.
I was a mess, barely able tospeak.

(07:57):
He was the one that knelt by mewhen I was six in that tiny
sanctuary and led me to Jesus.
But the moment I sat down andhe looked at me and said let's
take this one to the altar, sis,that simple sentence shifted
everything.
I feel it now just as it wasthen.

(08:18):
We knelt at that altar and heprayed, but for me he prayed
over an hour as I cried andrepented and couldn't find the
words as I surrendered and letgo of years, years of brokenness
that I had carried.
And then he looked at me andsaid something that changed my

(08:42):
life Heather Marie, you may havechosen this road, but you
didn't choose this battlefield.
God will equip you, lay it downand leave it.
That one phrase didn't justbring me back to my foundation.
It reminded me that I was neveralone.
All those nights I cried, allthose times I questioned God

(09:06):
where are you?
He never left me.
I walked away lighter, notbecause the battle was over, but
because I no longer wasfighting it in my own strength.
That moment at the altar withPastor Spence was life-changing.
It brought me back to myfoundation.

(09:28):
It reminded me I wasn't alone.
But listen, I didn't walk awayand get it all right At all.
I wish I could say I left thatchurch office and everything was
perfect.
Everything was beautiful, butit wasn't.
I would go home to two littlegirls and face the reality of

(09:53):
brokenness, not only for myselfbut for them.
I didn't choose the battlefield, but they certainly didn't
choose it field, but theycertainly didn't choose it.
Even after that powerful,powerful altar moment, I found

(10:17):
myself burying the pain in allthe wrong places again.
How crazy to have such analtering life moment with God at
an altar in a church, with yourchildhood pastor, and you still
choose wrong.
How does that even happen?
Why I found myself burying inthe pain in all the wrong places
.
I went back to what felt easy,what numbed me.

(10:38):
I turned to alcohol to quietthe ache.
I filled my weekends withconcerts and softball games and
shallow relationships.
I did anything I could todistract myself from the truth
that I was hurting Again.
I'm not my own savior.
Not that all of those things Iwas doing were necessarily bad,

(11:03):
but they weren't my answer.
The pain of sharing my kids withmy ex and his new girlfriend,
who was living in the house thatwe had somewhat made a home,
was almost unbearable.
Watching his life seeminglyfall perfectly back into place,
with no financial stress, nocustody juggling, no late night

(11:25):
meal scrambling, it broke me.
My life was in shambles and hislooked picture perfect.
I knew deep down I messed up.
I was making choices thatdidn't reflect the woman I knew
God created me to be.
Thankfully, it only went on fora few months.

(11:45):
A new surrender, another altarcall and I tell you.
I go back to grace.
God is grace.
One Sunday morning I walked intochurch feeling so empty.
There is no telling where I hadbeen on Saturday night.
I was so broken at this pointdue to my children being gone.

(12:09):
Living in a new house thatwasn't half as big as the old
one, I was still going, I wasstill trying, but if I thought I
was exhausted before, this wasa new level.
And that morning there was analtar call and I knew.
I knew the Holy Spirit wascoming for me.

(12:29):
I didn't even wait for Him tofinish, asking those that needed
prayer to come down.
I went and the moment my kneeshit the floor, the Holy Spirit
hit it with me and God gentlyreminded me.
Because our God, let's remember, he's gracious and he's loving

(12:51):
and he's gentle In ourbrokenness, when we really need
to just be slapped on the hand.
He doesn't do it like that.
He does it in a way that werespond to him and his response
to us is of love.
His reminder was that I hadlaid it all down before, but I

(13:12):
didn't lay it all and he wasn'tdone yet and right there in
tears and surrender.
I knew this time had to bedifferent.
I couldn't keep dancing withdestruction and asking God to
bless it.
I dropped everythingConversations I had.
People didn't understand how Icould go in 24 hours from

(13:33):
wanting to talk to someone tonever speak again.
If it wasn't of Him, it had togo.
I broke off every relationship.
I stopped drinking, stoppedchasing comfort, stopped running
from the pain and instead Ichose to run to Jesus.
I told God whatever you havefor me, I want it, not my

(13:55):
version, not my version ofhealing Yours.
I can't make up what I'm aboutto tell you, but five days later
, five days later, I get amessage nonchalantly hey, you
still there.
And I laugh because if you knowTyler, his text messages are

(14:15):
simple but it's meaningful andif he takes the time to speak to
you, and if he takes the timeto speak to you, he means it.
And it was him.
We hadn't spoken in threemonths.
He actually had left me on read, as the kids nowadays say.
But something about thatmessage hit differently.
It was gentle, it was of thesame spirit I had just felt at

(14:40):
the altar, it was timely and itwas right was right because this
time I was different.
God had cleared the clutter,shut the doors that I kept
reopening and prepared me forhis timing, not mine.
That simple message was thebeginning of a redemption story

(15:02):
I didn't even know was waitingfor me.
I didn't even know it waspossible.
Tyler and I reconnected slowly,intentionally and prayerfully.
We made some mistakes, but thistime it wasn't about filling a
void, it was about buildingsomething holy.
It was about building somethingholy, something God-centered,

(15:26):
something real.
On that same altar where I notonce but twice surrendered it
all, where I laid down years ofpain and regret and strife, that
same Uncle Spence married us.
God is so faithful, I'm tellingyou, if he can take my mess and

(15:51):
he can turn it into ministry.
He took what the enemy meantfor evil and he flipped it on
its head.
He gave me beauty for ashes,joy for the morning and I'm so
thankful for a family marked bygrace.

(16:12):
In Joel 2.25, the Lord says Iwill give you back what you lost
.
The Lord says I will give youback what you lost.
And, guys, I'm here to tell youtoday that's exactly what he
did.
That's what God did, not all atonce, not in the way I imagined
, but in his timing, in hispower and with more love and

(16:36):
redemption than I ever thoughtpossible.
So if you're in the middle of amess today, if you feel like
you blew it too badly, if you'verun too far, I'm here to tell
you God is not done with you.
He does his best work in themiddle of the storm.

(16:56):
He's in the midst of your rockbottom, your detour, your
waiting season and, most of all,your comeback.
You don't have to be perfect,you just have to be willing and
he will do the rest.
So stick around.
They're not all going to bethis emotional, but I wanted you

(17:18):
to get a glimpse of just trulythe road I've walked, so that
you know you're not alone.
Sometimes picture perfect andsocial media creates a glimmer
of what life looks to be.
But, guys, we're just gettingstarted, because God has given
me vision and he's going toallow me to share that with you,

(17:42):
because in the midst miraclesare born and your story is just
now begun.
Remember, we can close achapter and we can start another
, but in the end, if our storyisn't of him, is it a story
really worth writing?