A Word to Women Waiting, Weeping, and Wrestling
As this season of Coffee Table Chats came to a close, Donna and Cathy were asked a simple but powerful question:
“If you could say one thing to the women of the Lowcountry—what would it be?”
Their answers came not from a script, but from lived experience. From walking through suffering and still believing God is good. From seasons of waiting, wrestling, and wondering where He is—only to find that He’s been there all along.
This final conversation was full of honesty, Scripture, and raw faith—the kind that’s been tested in fire and found God faithful in the middle of it. Donna and Cathy spoke about waiting, pain, unanswered prayers, and the kind of hope that holds, even when everything else feels uncertain.
Waiting on the Lord (Even When It’s Hard)
Donna began with a quiet but profound reminder:
“The deeper you dive into God’s Word, the more you’ll learn about Him. And one thing I’ve been learning lately? I need to wait on the Lord.”
“Sometimes we get in such a hurry. We want things instantly. But God doesn’t work that way. We need to really find out what His plan is—and then wait for Him to make it happen. Because He will.”
Waiting can feel slow. Frustrating. Even lonely. But it’s not wasted. It’s often the sacred space where trust takes root—when we stop striving and start listening.
Cathy echoed that tension with vulnerability and grace.
“I don’t know why I’m waiting so hard,” she said. “But it’s so vital. So crucial.”
For her, waiting has looked like enduring cancer and depending on God for strength—sometimes just to walk from one room to the next.
Chosen for the Hard Journey?
“A lot of people have asked me, why do I have cancer? Where is God in that?”
Cathy doesn’t offer quick answers. But she holds fast to something she’s come to believe deeply:
“Many people say God allowed it. But I believe God chose me for this journey.”
She doesn’t say that lightly. It’s a conviction shaped by her time in the book of Job, where she sees a man who worshiped in the wreckage, grieved honestly, and spoke boldly to God—not out of rebellion, but relationship.
“God directs me back to Job’s story—how he lost everything, even his children and health, and still said, ‘Blessed be the name of the Lord.’ Then he got real with God. He got depressed. He asked questions. And God answered—not with explanations, but with presence.”
Do Not Be Afraid
That’s the thread God has spoken again and again to Cathy:
“Do not be afraid.”
“This cancer has not been conquered,” she said, “but it has not conquered me. That’s God doing that.”
Even when seizures came, when her blood sugar spiked over 500, when she couldn’t walk from the door to the chair—the whisper stayed the same:
Do not be afraid.
“That’s what I would tell anyone walking through cancer, depression, or bipolar: God is in it. He’s in the journey with you.”
“Go to Him with your questions. Go to Him when you’re angry. Go to Him when you’re depressed. He’ll meet you there—He always has with me.”
A Different Kind of Triumph
This year, Cathy and her husband are planning a trip to Europe—a gift to celebrate what they call her “cancer triumph journey.” Every step she takes through cobbled streets and long museum corridors will be a reminder that God has carried her farther than she ever imagined.
“It’s like God is saying, ‘See? Trust Me.’ I don’t know the outcome. But I know I’m not afraid anymore.”
What We Hope You Know
If Donna and Cathy could leave you with one shared hope—one encouragement to carry into your own story—it would be this:
You are not alone.
God sees you in the waiting.
He sits with you in the weeping.
He walks beside you in the wrestling.
He hasn’t forgotten the women of the Lowcountry.
He hasn’t forgotten you.
And He is still speaking:
“Do not be afraid.”
Reflect + Remember
Where in your life are you being asked to wait on God?
What would it look like to trust that God is working in that waiting?
How might your story encourage someone else to hold on just a little longer?
Scripture to Carry with You
“Fear not, for I am with you; be not dismayed, for I am your God.
I will strengthen you, I will help you, I will uphold you with my righteous right hand.”
—Isaiah 41:10
