Episode 0 :: Intro

Intro: “Messy Life. Mighty Love.” Podcast Hello, welcome to the ‘Messy Life. Mighty Love.’ Podcast. I am Abby, your host, storyteller, fellow journeyer and friend.  Life is Messy. It’s like that scrumptious lasagna, whose pieces spill out and slide all over and possibly get on fingers and for a little, or not-so-little one, around the mouth, on the shirt and perhaps pants too. But this mess is also full of love. And it’s a mighty love like the one filling the hands and heart which made the lasagna. Life is also messy like manure. To the nose unfamiliar it is simply the stinky poop of a cow. But to someone like me who grew up surrounded by manure on the dairy farm my family worked, it is the smell of home and of a love mightier than the thrones of many kingdoms.Yes, truly, Life IS messy, but it is equally mighty in love. In this Messy, Mighty podcast I want to open my life and ask you to jump right in with me. Whether its scrumptious lasagna or stinky manure, I want to lead you to the love found in every part of our messy lives. When I first thought of starting a podcast, I was going to focus on my most recent, tragically messy journey with bipolar disorder. I was going to push hard into the blood and guts of it and lead you, the listener, to the very real hope I have found amid mental illness.But, when I thought more and prayed, I realized this would be a disservice to you and me. You see, although I have fought hard these past five years and have won true hope, a big part of my healing has come through remembering the whole of my story. It has come through seeing my life like that mighty ‘oak of righteousness’ Isaiah prophesies about for the people of God. It has come through a good God showing me how the soil of my tender little heart which first trusted Him has grown many, many roots branching out below and producing fruit above. Its not a proud thing to see it this way, its an identity-in-God and life in Him which cannot be shaken, come hell or high-water kind of thing. This perspective has been essential for my own healing and I believe, it is essential for your healing too.To understand the dark hand of mental illness, it’s pivotal to recognize how it slices through brains and hearts and spirits building the case that it is all a person is. I know it has done that to me. And nothing was messier then when I ended up in a mental ward in Budapest, Hungary. Then, just one week after my release, we left a life my three kids, husband and I loved one week after I got out of the hospital. It was an unbelievable, tragic mess. And the steel fist of bipolar disorder threatened to level me for good.Yet, I found a precious paradox, the most glorious hope in that mess. A Mighty Love which the depths of hell, and the broken mess of a fallen world could never, ever destroy.And it has emboldened me to grow stronger and stronger as I own my story and look at all the messes of my life, both big and small, and find the mighty love therein. For here, I know, I, and maybe, just maybe, you too, will be healed.So, each Thursday, beginning next week, you will find a new episode. Here I will share a story from my messy life and lead us to the mighty love therein.Whether you struggle with mental illness, like me, or a chronic illness or a rebellious child or strained family relationships or any other kind of deeply painful mess, I hope you will be reminded of times outside of this current mess. Times inside of your story when the love of someone which reflected the mighty love of God, can truly be seen. In this faithfulness, that I partake of through sharing my story, I also offer to you with loving hands. http://abigailalleman.com