208: Exhausted and Feel Like You’re Failing? Here’s How God Meets You There

Welcome back to the show. If you’re a Christian woman who feels like you’re not qualified for what’s in front of you, whether that’s a health struggle, a calling, or just getting through today, this episode is for you.

I recently learned about missionary Gladys Aylward through our homeschool curriculum, and her story stopped me in my tracks. She was rejected. She faced trial after trial. And she kept going back anyway, because serving was the desire God had placed in her heart.

In this episode, I walk through her story and connect it to two truths I’ve been holding onto: God goes with us through our trials, and He gives us the desires of our hearts when we delight in Him. If you’re in a season of exhaustion, whether physical, emotional, or spiritual, and you’re looking for a faith-based lens to make sense of it, this one’s for you.

Rejected, But Not Finished

Gladys Aylward wasn’t the “qualified” candidate. A missionary society turned her down. Instead of giving up, she cleaned houses to save money for a one-way train ticket to China. Her journey was interrupted by war, arrest, and danger before she even arrived. She kept going anyway.

Trial After Trial in China

Once in China, Gladys took over an inn, became a foot inspector during the era of foot binding, and stopped a prison riot, all while sharing the gospel. She began adopting children, eventually caring for 94 of them during the Japanese invasion of China in World War II. She led those children on a two-week journey on foot across the mountains to safety, with none of them falling sick or dying along the way.

Where Faith and Endurance Meet Holistic Health

What strikes me most about her story isn’t that she avoided hardship. It’s that God stayed present with her through every bit of it. That’s a pattern I see in the women I work with too: healing rarely means the trial disappears. It means learning to walk through it with your body, mind, and faith aligned instead of working against each other.

Two Scriptures Worth Sitting With

Joshua 1:9 reminds us that God commands us to be strong and courageous because He is with us wherever we go. Psalm 37:4 reminds us that when we delight ourselves in the Lord, He gives us the desires of our hearts. Gladys’s life is a picture of both: she was never spared hardship, but she was never without God’s presence in it, and her God-given desire to serve carried her through it.

Time-Stamped Highlights

00:00 – Introduction: feeling unqualified and going anyway
00:25 – How the podcast host discovered Gladys Aylward’s story through homeschool curriculum
00:53 – Rejected by a missionary society, then saving for a one-way ticket to China
01:22 – War, arrest, and danger on the journey to China
02:20 – Taking over the inn and becoming a foot inspector
03:49 – Stopping a prison riot
04:47 – Adopting children during the Japanese invasion
06:14 – Leading 94 children on foot across the mountains
09:33 – Reflecting on Joshua 1:9
10:03 – Reflecting on Psalm 37:4 and the desires of our hearts
11:55 – Trusting that God withholds nothing good from us (Romans 8:28)

Key Takeaways

Feeling unqualified isn’t a disqualifier. God works through willing hearts, not perfect résumés.
Trials don’t mean God has left. Scripture promises His presence through them, not exemption from them.
The desires God places in your heart are worth paying attention to, even when the path to them is hard.
True endurance, whether in faith, health, or calling, comes from staying aligned with God rather than gritting through alone.
Healing and growth are rarely instant. They’re a process worth walking through with support, not in isolation.

Your Next Step, If You’re Ready

If you’re a Christian woman who’s exhausted, maybe you feel dismissed by conventional medicine, and you’re ready to get to the root cause instead of just managing symptoms, I’d love to talk with you. As an RN with a background inside the pharmaceutical industry, I help women approach exhaustion and autoimmune struggles through a whole-person, faith-rooted approach to holistic health.

I’m currently offering a free 15-minute Introductory Call. If you’re ready to stop waiting and take a real next step, book your call at herholistichealing.com/call. I don’t know how long I’ll be offering these calls, so if you’re interested, I’d encourage you to grab a spot soon.