Show notes
62. Unexpected Grief and What Helped Me Through It Can Help You Too with Singer and Blogger, Brittany Price Brooker **Transcription Below** Colossians 3:2 (NIV) “Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things.” At The Savvy Sauce, we will only recommend resources we believe in! We also want you to be aware: We are a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for us to earn fees by linking to Amazon.com and affiliated sites. Connect with Brittany Price Brooker on Instagram and Facebook @brittanypricebrooker Brittany Price Booker’s Website Hidden in My Heart: A Lullaby Journey Through Scripture The One Year Book of Hope by Nancy Guthrie Brittany Price Booker’s Full List of Recommended Resources Daily Audio Bible Thank You to Our Sponsor: FabFitFun #fabfitfunpartner (Enter Code: SAVVY at checkout to receive $10 off your first box) Connect with The Savvy Sauce on Facebook or Instagram or Our Website Please help us out by sharing this episode with a friend, leaving a 5-star rating and review, and subscribing to this podcast! Gospel Scripture: (all NIV) Romans 3:23 “for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,” Romans 3:24 “and are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus.” Romans 3:25 (a) “God presented him as a sacrifice of atonement, through faith in his blood.” Hebrews 9:22 (b) “without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness.” Romans 5:8 “But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” Romans 5:11 “Not only is this so, but we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation.” John 3:16 “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.” Romans 10:9 “That if you confess with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.” Luke 15:10 says “In the same way, I tell you, there is rejoicing in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repents.” Romans 8:1 “Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus” Ephesians 1:13–14 “And you also were included in Christ when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation. Having believed, you were marked in him with a seal, the promised Holy Spirit, who is a deposit guaranteeing our inheritance until the redemption of those who are God’s possession- to the praise of his glory.” Ephesians 1:15–23 “For this reason, ever since I heard about your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love for all the saints, I have not stopped giving thanks for you, remembering you in my prayers. I keep asking that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the glorious Father, may give you the spirit of wisdom and revelation, so that you may know him better. I pray also that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which he has called you, the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints, and his incomparably great power for us who believe. That power is like the working of his mighty strength, which he exerted in Christ when he raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly realms, far above all rule and authority, power and dominion, and every title that can be given, not only in the present age but also in the one to come. And God placed all things under his feet and appointed him to be head over everything for the church, which is his body, the fullness of him who fills everything in every way.” Ephesians 2:8–10 “For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith – and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God – not by works, so that no one can boast. For we are God‘s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.“ Ephesians 2:13 “But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far away have been brought near through the blood of Christ.“ Philippians 1:6 “being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.” **Transcription** [00:00:00] <music> Laura Dugger: Welcome to The Savvy Sauce, where we have practical chats for intentional living. I'm your host Laura Dugger, and I'm so glad you're here. [00:00:17] <music> Laura Dugger: I want to say thank you to our sponsor, FabFitFun. If you want to learn more about their seasonal subscription boxes, which include over $200 worth of full-size products that cost you only $49.99, visit them at fabfitfun.com. And if you use the coupon code SAVVY at checkout, you'll receive $10 off your first box. We appreciate all your feedback that you've sent through messages on our website and social media. Many of you have mentioned you love the series titled Everyone Has a Story. We agree with you because it seems God does amazing things through each person's story, especially when it's shared. Today we get to hear Brittany Price Brooker's story of deep grief and unwavering faithfulness for God. You're going to be so encouraged through the scripture that she brings to life and the wisdom that she shares from lessons learned in her unexpected path. Here's our chat. [00:01:23] Welcome to the Savvy Sauce, Brittany. Brittany Price Brooker: Hey, girl. Oh, I love being with you today. Laura Dugger: Well, we are just going to jump right in. You have a powerful testimony where joy and sorrow intersect. And so will you just share that story with us? Brittany Price Brooker: Yeah, I would love to. I think my story really starts back from growing up in a godly home and really kind of just seeking the Lord at an early age as I watched my parents seek the Lord and watch how they did life. And I think at an early age, you really catch what your parents are doing rather than just watching it and from them teaching you, but you really can catch what they're just seeking on. I had that life that I'd always dreamed about. I had what my mind thought like the perfect husband and godly man who loved Jesus, who was funny and tall and handsome. We had three little baby boys and was just living the dream of being a wife and a mother. [00:02:25] I was the little girl that always pretended when I was little to have a husband and kids. I would often tell my husband, I'm literally living my dream right now, even though I was exhausted. In the fall of 2015, I had three kids under the age of three. Our life was like whack-a-mole. You get one kid down from the nap, you put the next one down, they get up, and it was just crazy. My house was just a mess all the time. You know, you find their kids slushing everything down the toilet or, you know, scrubbing the toilet with your toothbrush like an expert. And you think, oh my word, how many times have they been doing this? And this is the first time I caught them. Like, this is crazy. Then one morning, my husband got up to go to work. And at this point, we had a newborn, a one-and-a-half-year-old and almost three-year-old. And he said, "You know, we didn't sleep much last night. I'm just going to go ahead and go early to work." I remember I was dealing with a lot of pain at the time from childbirth, and we had some difficulties with my health afterwards. [00:03:29] I remember thinking, "Oh, I need to tell him that I've been in pain tonight, and I need your help a little bit more tomorrow night." But the Holy Spirit just said, "Brittany, don't say anything." So instead, I was like, "Baby, you look so hot in your suit, and I hope you have an awesome day. I love you, baby. I'll see you soon." I said goodbye to him, got all my little babies ready to go to Bible study, which we did every Tuesday morning, so I was not out of ordinary. I dropped them off. They went to class good, and I sent my husband a quick text and just said, "You'd be so proud of them. They did so good in class." We went into small group, and at the time we were studying Revelation, and the question was posed, you know, why do you study prophecy anyways? I was feeding my little newborn, and I remember just saying, "For me, I study prophecy because it gives me confidence to trust God no matter what happens in my life." Literally moments after speaking those words, my phone rang. And like any good Bible study girl, I ignored it the first time. But the second time, I felt like the Holy Spirit said to answer, it was something with Patrick. And so I answered the phone and it was my husband's boss on the other line. [00:04:38] And he said, "Hey, has Patrick been sick?" And I said, "No, I mean, he's a perfectly healthy 30 year old man. I just saw him this morning. Everything's fine. You know what happened?" And he's like, "Oh, he fell at work. We took him to the hospital. We're gonna come get a vehicle to come get you to bring you here." And I was like, "Okay great." Just kind of thinking, Okay, maybe he got dehydrated, you know, we're tired, we have all these kids, something he's probably cracking up with all the nurses right now. He was just so funny, always cracking jokes with everybody. It was raining very, very hard in Atlanta where we lived at the time. And so they said, "You know what? We don't really want you driving in the rain, and we're going to put our lights on so you can get there a lot faster. So just hang on a second. We'll get to you." I figured out child care with my kids, and I waited in the rain for over an hour for these vehicles to come get me. And I'm just thinking, "Can I just get in my car and see my man? I just want to get to my hubs, please." So what felt like forever as I was sitting there in the rain and just kind of pacing back and forth in front of that church where the Bible study was, was one of those moments I'll never forget where God wasn't just laying a verse on my heart, He was screaming it in my mind and heart. [00:05:54] And all I could think of was the peace that passes all understanding will guard your hearts and your mind in Christ Jesus. As that vehicle pulled in front of that church and I got in the back and the officer saying, "I'm so sorry, I don't know what happened, the Holy Spirit just kind of took over." And I said, "Whatever it is we can trust God that He's in control." It took another hour to get to the hospital where my husband was at. I remember getting out and the Lord just impressing on my heart, "Brittany, remember every bit of this. You need to remember." And so just little details that I wouldn't have normally picked up on a homeless man right there. I just remember feeling like he felt so cold, and it was raining, and I wish I could do something. But I was trying to get to my man, and this taxi driver, and all these pedals, and just this trash, and little details, I was remembering. And I was running in there, and ran past security, and I ran as fast as I could. I remember running in a hallway, and the hallway was full of people with sorrow all over their faces. [00:06:59] And I knew it was coming. And they sat me down and they said, "Brittany, we're so sorry, but Patrick died. His heart just stopped beating and we don't know why." And in that moment, at the age of 25, with three kids under three, I became a widow and my kids became fatherless. And my entire world changed. I remember just saying, "The Lord gives and takes away. He is so good." And I started to sing a song I hadn't thought of in so long of, you know, precious Lord, take my hand, lead me on, help me stand. And it's just like a song God gave me in that moment. But in that second, my entire world changed. Every dream I have, every hope, every vision I had of what my family was going to look like. You know, everything in your life involves that other person that you do life with, the person that is your home. And so that began just really crazy journey of grief and layers upon layers of grieving and pain and walking through my babies, through losing their daddy, who is their hero in every way. But also in that process, it's been one of the sweetest journey of my entire life, because I've gotten to see the goodness and the preciousness of our faithful Father in a way I could have never, ever imagined. [00:08:24] And you see the layer of God's goodness in the midst of pain. So that's a little bit of our pain journey. Fast forward and several years later, as I walked through that journey and God called me not just to stay in my pain, but to walk through it and to shift my perspective to heaven instead of the grave. In the process of doing that, I just started bumping into all these people that were dealing with pain. Because, you know, 100 percent of us will deal with struggles and pain in our lives. The difference is not if we'll have pain, but the difference is how will we steward the pain that we're given? I started to share a story in the midst of it. I came across this family that was going through this terrible hardship, and this other widower was ministering to the same family. He had lost his wife a month before I had lost Patrick. And they had two small children that they had adopted and this crazy story. So we started helping out this family and our paths crossed, and we started building a friendship that was really centered on the kingdom of God and heaven and living for eternity in the midst of this broken world, but also living with hope and desiring to give hope to other people. [00:09:38] God started just really building a love story that only He could do. About a year and a half ago, I got married to Daniel Brooker. They call us the Brooker Bunch because when we got married, we had five kids, six and under, and it was a crazy zone. So that kind of fast forward just a little bit to today and now walking through our life today. Laura Dugger: That is such an incredible story. I've heard it said before that worship is warfare. And you even alluded to a song coming to your heart. Did you have any other tools like worship that you use to really push back the darkness during those most intense times of grief? Brittany Price Brooker: Yeah. You know, I really felt like the Lord made known to me what you hear about in Scripture, a sacrifice of praise. And why it's called a sacrifice is because it hurts. Anything that we do that's sacrificial, it's taking something away from our comfort, from our security. When we're giving sacrificially, it's not because, oh, we have all this extra. It's because it kind of hurts to give that, you know? And we feel that. [00:10:46] I remember just even being in church one day and just wrestling with God, like here I'm sitting alone in church. And I had this little tiny baby on me, and I'm like, "God, I, literally weeks ago, was sitting next to my husband in this church service." And God just said, "Brittany, will you give me a sacrifice of praise even when it still hurts?" And I remember with tears just pouring down my face, just raising both hands in the air and just worshiping God for who He was. I think that in the midst of going through brokenness and pain, God is calling us to wage warfare and a sacrifice of praise and praising God even when we are not feeling it and speaking out of truth and not out of our feelings. Because our feelings can deceive us. There was not a moment, still honestly, that I don't feel some sort of pain or sorrow that we deal with. But there's also not a moment, if we choose to view it, that we can't fe…
Full show notes at the publisher 
Our TOPPODCAST Picks 
Stay Connected
