Digging In: An HGBM Contributing Author Spotlight

In Part 1, we looked at how our gifts are shaped—not just through what comes naturally, but through what we’ve been through.

That’s where the connection starts.

This is where it comes into focus.

The Backend Connection

(Part Two)

By HGBM Contributing Author, Terra Kern

Later in life, I was sidelined with a bum back. It hurt to do anything. I couldn’t even walk to the end of my driveway without dropping in pain. Since I couldn’t do anything except sit, I decided I would sit and write, my favorite old pastime. I could have some fun and entertainment despite my condition. As I sat down to write, my mind churning on what exactly to write, I heard the Lord speak to me. He asked me if He could use my life as an open book. I answered Him with an absolute yes. He had been so good to me throughout my life, I wanted to please Him and do whatever He asked.

However, I had no idea just how open or just how deep He wanted to go. When He was leading me in what to put down in words for the faith-based book He asked me to write, He proceeded in unlocking that closed off compartment in my mind, and digging up the pain I had buried so deeply within my heart. And as I obeyed and wrote about it, He healed me from all of it! He brought me to the place where I could talk about those events with no more debilitating pain and no more hurt. When I saw that He was with me the whole time behind the scenes, and had a good purpose for all that pain, I was able to speak of them as just facts. Mere facts that didn’t evoke and cripple with emotions like 2+2=4, like the color of grass is green.

Burying the hurts, pain, and memories of hardships was the equivalent of getting a sliver deep below my skin, a sliver not easily removable. And when I didn’t deal with it properly, it began to fester beneath the surface. Infection then set in. But by allowing Jesus, the great physician, to work as my surgeon, He, with remarkable precision, opened up the wound, removed the foreign objects, and worked in me a proper healing. It was then the gift grew via me being able to speak of and write about His goodness, love, and mercy. It was then on the backside, that my God-given natural gift of writing was fused with the power and anointing of the Holy Spirit and exploded, growing into a gift He was able to use to bless others and of course, receive the glory for.

We all face hardships in life. No one is exempt. When God is walking along side of us, He is working even then. He realizes and knows that He alone can use these experiences to shape you, to mold you, according to His purposes. Through these experiences, our gifts are growing right along with us. Once we are ready to enter the next step in our walk with God, it will slowly be revealed as we increase our spiritual understanding that even through those negative experiences, what God ordained in us from birth will not be snuffed out. The hardships are just the backend connection to the growth of our unique gifts.

What Terra shares here is something most people don’t realize until much later—if they realize it at all.

What you’ve been through isn’t separate from what you’ve been given.

It’s connected.

And when those two things come together, that’s where your gifts begin to carry real weight—real purpose.

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If you’ve been through things you don’t fully understand yet, you’re not alone.

And if you’re ready to take the next step, you don’t have to figure it out on your own.

At Higher Ground Books & Media, we help authors take what they’ve been given and move it forward—without overcomplicating the process.

You can learn more or get started by visiting our website.