How to be Brave Amidst Life Chaos and Multiple Diagnoses with Julie West

Dawn Damon: All right, bravehearted women. I have a special guest for you today. She is an author, a Bible teacher and a media personality. In addition to being an on-air personality at Z88.3 in Orlando. Oh, how blessed is she? She has been featured on Fox News. She's a regular on the Michael DiGiorno show, WTLW TV 44, and so many other media outlets. She holds degrees in theology and youth ministry with additional studies and counseling and cross-cultural communications. Her latest release, Exiting Egypt: Lessons From The Life of an Exiled Prince. Wow. Will you please welcome to the program today, Julie West.

Hi Julie!

Julie West: Hi Dawn. Thank you. It's so great to be here today.

Dawn Damon: We are so excited to have you. I'm so intrigued by the title of your book. By the way, especially the subtitle, the Lessons From The Life of an Exiled Prince. Wow! We want to get into that, but I would love it. If you would just take a moment and tell us a little bit about yourself. I know you're married. You have some children.

Julie West: I have grown children and one perfect grandson. He's wonderful. The kids I can't always vouch for, but that baby's perfect.

Dawn Damon: Of course, all the grandchildren are perfect.

Julie West: I was raised in the church, always felt a call towards ministry, and it's funny with my friends who've been in ministry and around that life rarely turns out the way any of us pictured. I envisioned myself in media in church-related things and instead, I ended up in media. and wrote a book and God's just loving everything that God has me doing. But it's very different from the pastor's wife or just some of those things that I thought would have been more typical when I was growing up.

Dawn Damon: Yeah, you can, we kind of enlarge our understanding of what ministry is and being in missions. We do kind of expand the narrow end of the funnel that says it can only look like this and congratulations, because I'm doing the same thing in the second curve of my life, the second half being in media. But you know, you said that you kind of felt like you had an idyllic life in Franklin, Tennessee, you know, looking back, you said, no, maybe it wasn't. But you had all this stuff going on in your life. Things were just kind of clicking along when suddenly, well, you got multiple life-threatening diagnoses. Tell us about that.

Julie West: So we have raised our children in Franklin, Tennessee, and the tourists and the celebrities were all there. All of that was a very normal part of life, and I was involved in the Christian music industry and broadcasting in Nashville. So people thought, not that I was on top of the game, but I was doing okay there, you know?

When our son, the youngest graduated from high school, it was like, hey, we can go anywhere, we can do anything thing. All of a sudden, we ended up moving a couple of hours away to Indiana. When I was away from my friends, my home was empty. No more kids and friends in it.

Then all of a sudden I was diagnosed first had a massive 5 tumor in my abdomen. After that, diagnosed incorrectly, we found out after a while with lymphoma, then systemic sarcoidosis, Ehlers-Danlos syndrome, and POTS, and started to experience things like, I'd never even heard of spontaneous deafness until I began to experience it. Imagine if your whole world was around radio and speaking, teaching, and just randomly you would lose the ability to hear. They explained to me what that was and that started to happen shortly after because of treatments related to the sarcoidosis. And the sarcoidosis in my eyes that the doctors informed me that blindness was a very real possibility.

So my kids are away from home. I'm away from my friends. I'm away from the church where I've been for years. And suddenly it's like, Hey, you're at home. I was sitting alone in a house where we couldn't get the renovations fixed by the way, so I couldn't even relax there. And they tell me, oh, by the way, you might be blind and you might be deaf, and there's no way to really know what could happen.

Dawn Damon: Wow, Julie, that is so much to take in. Even as you're saying it, I'm feeling myself. My heart's starting to beat a little bit. But I'm thinking, wow, that had to take so much courage to hear those diagnoses and not let that fear get on the inside of you. But yet you told me that you had this strange piece.

Julie West: It was amazing. I was having doctor's office visits that were days long where like five days was one and you'd be at the hospital and you'd see this. It was funny because I remember getting a call from one doctor saying, so excited saying, Hey, this wasn't cancer. Then, another one saying, you know, sitting there in the office and he's wringing his hands because he's sure that it's horrible news. I remember thinking, that poor man thinks I'm going to die, and it was the oddest thing. It's that peace that passes understanding that scripture tells us about. It was like the Lord said, No, I've got things for you to finish. I've got things for you to do.

So for me, there was such peace there that facing it without my friends, without the life I had known was challenging, but that wasn't the brave thing. The brave thing for me was knowing I was gonna get on the other side of these physical challenges. I know I will, whatever that looks like, but for me, the brave thing was acknowledging the thing that God had called me to do.

Dawn Damon: And I want to hear about that. But first, I just have to say when you are the one comforting the doctor amidst the negative prognosis, that is a strange piece indeed, but that's our God. That's what he does. You already had a revelation that I'm going to live. I've got stuff to do. God has spoken that to my heart. So, on the other side of these diagnoses, the brave thing was for you to do what God called you to do. What was that?

Julie West: Well, I sat down for years. I'd felt like Julie, you need to sit down and write something and too busy, too many friends, too many kids, too many, you know, other things, all the things. It was like the Lord said, okay, well, here you are at home. It was interesting because I remember the Lord telling me to sit down and write and I kind of thought I have literally nothing but time so I might as well. So I sat there and I didn't know what to write. But I started writing and initially I started writing about David, and before too much longer I realized that's not it. I backed up, and I ended up writing what I thought would be just a simple Bible study about the life of Moses. A simple thing, but an interesting thing happened when the sarcoidosis got into my eyes. And for a while, I wasn't able to read. I started listening to the Bible, but a lot of the versions I could find in English were sort of excruciating to listen to.

So I started listening to Orthodox rabbis, reading the Exodus, and they would first give you the English, then the Hebrew. It's here are all the other verses that it relates to, and here's what this should mean to our lives. Every bit of it opened my eyes to scripture in a way I had never considered before. I have a theology degree and then when you tap on the side of it. Jesus as the Messiah, that it really was a revelation and beautiful truth that God taught me. I couldn't have gone through had I not written Exiting Egypt and had I not experienced what I experienced health-wise.

Dawn Damon: I love what you're saying there and isn't it true? I can imagine because hearing Hebrew just does something to my spirit, and my soul and listening to those teachings of the rabbis. So it brought you to the place of Moses. Okay, so David, that's not the story. God says, nope, that's not the dude. But Moses is the guy. And you write a book called, Exiting Egypt: Lessons From The Life of an Exiled Prince.

Julie West: There it is.

Dawn Damon: You say in your book, Hey, listener, if you don't know about this story, I encourage you to get into the Pentateuch and the first five books of the Bible ~ Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy. But you're going to hear a story of friends and frogs and the family. And you're telling us right now, Julie, that that is key to understanding the story of Exodus. I got to hear more about that.

Julie West: So, you know, we're almost too familiar in a way with the story because we kind of go, okay, I know it. We don't really absorb the words. There are all sorts of details that are omitted, but God takes the time. He doesn't take the time to tell us the name of the Pharaoh, or even the name that Moses' parents gave him when he was born. We're told the name, that Pharaoh's daughter gave him, but God does take the time to list two friends, Shiphrah and Puah. These two young women risked everything to oppose a Pharaoh in obedience to God, to save the lives of children in the very act of being born. So God says, you know, I'm not taking the time to write down the name of Pharaoh. I'm not even taking the time to write down the name of Moses or the birth name that he was given by his parents. But these two women are worth remembering. They were bravehearted women.

Dawn Damon: They were bravehearted women.

Julie West: And the interesting thing is that God didn't want us to focus on the celebrities because they're not the stars of the world of the story. He is but for these women he said, you know what, they're overlooked people, don't pay attention to them. But you need to remember them forever and what they did was obey that because blessings tend to follow obedience, and miracles follow obedience.

When we talk about the curse of frogs or the plague of frogs, we hear that they went into the homes, into the beds, into the shoes, and the closets, and it tells us that they went into the homes, right? But it also takes time to tell us that they went into the ovens and why is that so important? Because an oven is diametrically opposed to everything that a frog wants in his life. They want the cold, the dark, and the wet. For the frogs at that time, in those ovens, it was hot. It was dry. It was bright with fire and they marched into those ovens, not because any man told them to. But it was out of obedience to the calling of God, where it was like, hey, though he slay me, still, I will serve him. And the beautiful thing for us is generations later, the Hebrews would find themselves in slavery again, and three Hebrew boys would defy a king and find themselves standing in the ovens.

The beautiful thing is that Jesus, who was there before the foundations of the earth, was the fourth man in the fire with them. When we take those brave stands, God stands with us. Finally, the family and this one, when I caught this, I had a day with it. You know how sometimes the scripture does you that way? So the interesting thing about the genealogy of Moses is, it happens smack dab in the middle of his life, which is unique because typically we see it. When people are born or when they rest with their fathers, you know, what happened right before is Moses was complaining about the Israelites and why would Pharaoh believe because these screw-ups don't even believe. The Lord said, hang on, let's take a look at who you are. You're not a Midianite shepherd. You are not an Egyptian prince, although that's how you've lived most of your life. These people aren't other than. You're one of them.

The other thing that is amazing about that genealogy is, of course, they had to include Levi in the genealogy because He was, well, they're his heir, but he also includes, Reuben and Simeon are also included. And you go, why wouldn't he include all 12? Why would he just do three of these? It doesn't make any sense. When you take the time to research it, the thing that Reuben, Simeon, and Levi all have in common is that they were children left without a blessing from their father. In fact, their father used his final words at the end of Genesis to pronounce a curse upon them. The thing that really blessed me is, that Reuben slept with his father's concubine. You know, he's like, you will not be blessed. No king ever came from Reuben. But for Levi and Simeon, they were side by side in their sin, right? They slaughtered people who had made a covenant with them when they were trying to make peace and for Levi, that warrior spirit perfectly suited them for the role that God had for them for Simeon, that they continued to go down a pathway of rebellion and sin. And so it's not like, hey, these guys were punished because God just didn't like them. It's because they made choices. There were consequences. But by the way, the things that tripped them up in the beginning that God used in the end to be a blessing to all mankind. Even though their earthly father didn't have a blessing for them, their heavenly father still said, I'm not done with you. Watch what I'll do with you. So that's the friends, the frogs, the family.

Dawn Damon: Yeah. That's so much. You just unpacked so much there in such rich biblical teaching. It's so powerful, but the lessons there then I'm hearing that you're saying that God, the Father of all blessings can still take our lives wherever we are, whatever we've been through, whatever season we're in right now. We surrender our life to him so that he will bless us. He does say, I'm not done with you. I have more for you. We can defeat discouragement. We can defeat confusion and despair because our Father knows us and has a plan and a calling for our lives.

Julie West: Yes and the great thing with Moses and Levi, the tribe of Levi, how they ended up elevated, because the interesting thing is the exact same words were spoken over Levi and Simeon. Then for Levi, because he went down the path of obedience to God and following that was blessing. And Simeon just sort of faded away, faded away. But the great thing is, no matter what people have said about us, maybe it was our earthly father failed us, maybe it was a spouse, maybe it was even the cruel words of a child, whatever those words that have been spoken over anyone, they don't trump the truth. God's heart towards us.

Dawn Damon: Amen. Listen, we got to say that one more time, you know, whatever's been spoken over you, woman of God, whatever label has been pasted on your container, you know, let's peel that off. Let's strip that off. If it doesn't line up with what God's word says about us. It's not our label. It's a lie. It's a limiting belief, but we are, the truest thing about us is who God says that we are. And I love that.

So how does the Exodus narrative destroy then some of our human arguments? Because we look at Moses, you know, you drew an interesting conclusion. What was Moses specifically called to and how does this, narrative destroy our arguments of, well, this is just who I am?

Julie West: Well, so what Moses was called to do wasn't called to part seas, to work miracles, and to unleash plagues. That the specific thing that we see over and over in the story of what God calls him to do is ~ listen, obey, watch, and see what I will do. Listen, obey, watch, and see what I will do. And there's this clear pattern where obedience follows freedom.

You know, the thing that starts in Genesis, I'm gonna go down a little rabbit trail here, I hope you don't mind, that we're told that we are made in the image and the likeness of God, both male and female, by the way. Then, you know, we see. This much of the Bible is about man falling into sin. Everything else, every other word, is God's work to set us free.

So, when we look, at whether it was Moses and the call to freedom there. Everything that God is doing is calling us to freedom and God wants us to be free because he is free that we are called to be like him. And so that said, as we obey him, whether it was in the Exodus, whether it is the way we go through life now that sometimes we get tripped up and we become slaves, you know, we're warned in the epistles that don't fall into the slavery again. Don't go back that we go, well, here are the things that have been said about me. Here are the patterns I've had from my past. Here are my addictions Galatians 5:1 says, it is for freedom that you have been set free and God is calling each and every one of us to freedom and to take brave stands just like he was calling Moses to stand up for freedom and follow him.

One more thing that I think is amazing is sometimes we get so scared to take those stands, so scared to take that first step. Trust me, but the amazing thing that a lot of the times we miss is God has the power to make himself known in flames in a scrub bush. He's gentle enough to avoid harm and to avoid consuming something as worthless as a big thorny weed. And if God is that gentle and that caring and that careful, that was literally worthless. How will he deal with us?

Dawn Damon: That's so beautiful and you know what, Julie, you are truly a Bible teacher and you can see your passion for communicating the word of God. It's so powerful. I want to encourage everyone to grab a copy of this book because sometimes when people have a book that they've written. They're excited a little bit. But then you can see where that book has written them like it has worked you from the inside out. You are walking and living these truths.

And you quoted Galatians 5:1, which happens to be one of my favourite verses. It's for freedom's sake that Christ has set us free. Stand firm, therefore, and don't let yourself get entangled again by a yoke of bondage or slavery. That is very often the message that I like to bring to, Hey, women of God, women, whoever you are, there is a savior who has provided your freedom and wants you to walk in freedom and healing and wholeness and freedom of mind.

I want to shift gears just for a moment though, because you had all these diagnoses and you had all of this stuff going on. Are you writing this book while you're battling all of those things?

Julie West: Yes, and in fact, it wasn't me sitting down at a typewriter or a laptop, I aged myself there. But it wasn't me sitting down at a laptop, you know, first chapter, second chapter, that I was literally lying in bed and listening to the words from the rabbis and listening to the scriptures and scrawling notes. Then I would come back and eventually sort of type them into notes and start rearranging them but yes there were times when the plagues felt like Israelites or that were happening in Egypt. It felt like I was living it. It felt like, you know, that I needed the Lord to pass over me and protect me. One in particular, you know, the plague of darkness, when you look at it, it's awfully similar. The parallels between that and some of the depression and the isolation that came during COVID.

And also is such a problem in this world today where there was a darkness that held people down and it held them in place. But even that was a gift from God because when God is trying to free us, and this went for me. Sometimes I was busy with my friends or kids or other things that kept me from doing what God had called me to do. But when I was there in bed, just like when the Egyptians were held in place by the plague of darkness, they couldn't keep up. Go to their friends for advice. They couldn't go well. Hey, here's our team. And this is what we all believe together The Israelites left Egypt a mixed multitude that others went and the Lord was providing Egypt a chance to understand who he really was and to work out as they were laying here Here is what the God of Israel promised he would do. And by the way, I'm still lying there. When the only thing I can see is darkness, the only thing that matters is God. That's the only hope I have. So, yes. It took so long, but it's funny, the things that he worked in my life, just the willingness to obey, the willingness to, you know, Moses made all of these tiny micro-adjustments in his life out of obedience. As he did, God transformed him and as Moses allowed the Lord to transform him, an entire nation was set free and a huge part of the Word of God was set out there.

And for me, I know, I'll confess that there were times where I was in my role and I can't do this thing because of, you know, well, here is what people expect of me and I can't rock the boat and all of that. I don't want to upset my kids. When I finally went. No, I'm going to obey the Lord in this thing. I'm going to these little tiny steps that all of a sudden, not only was I physically healed but spiritually and emotionally, healing came in there. I was like, you know what? I really do need to walk in the person that God created me to be.

Dawn Damon: You said, listen, obey, watch and see. And that's what you were doing as you were listening and writing and watching. So thankful for the freedom because I love what you just said. As we wrap up this, it was such a great phrase that Moses, his willingness to be transformed led a nation to freedom. Isn't that the truth that our willingness we were so worried about what other people might see, what they might think, what they might say, and what might they experience? But the reality is, is that when we allow ourselves to be transformed into God's image and what he's called us to be, we set other people free to do the same.

Julie West: Amen. The freedom and the transformation that God does in us never stop with us. It changes our families. It changes our communities. It'll change our nation. We just have to turn to God and call on him and say, Lord, not my will, but thine. Beautiful.

So if people are interested, and I know that they are in your book, of course, I am going to have the link in the show notes, but I'm sure they can get it on Amazon.

Julie West: They can get it on Amazon, on Barnes & Noble, on Kindle, wherever you get your books or ebooks online, you can get them. So yes, please do.

Dawn Damon: And then just tell us briefly, what's next for you and you're healed and healthy.

Julie West: You know what? I have a little bit of a limp. There are some things in my life that have changed a little bit, but for the most part, I'm doing very well. And I am far better off than any of my doctors expected me to be a couple of years ago. So, moving in the right direction even still. I am booking services and getting out there and speaking again. And by the way, making the book available as a no-risk fundraiser to ministries and women who want to use that. So really, I am just walking through whatever doors the Lord has for me to go and proclaim the message that he's given me.

Dawn Damon: Beautiful. Well, we are so grateful that you've been with us today on the Bravehearted Woman, and you are brave for all the things that you've been through, brave to tell the story, brave to take the time, brave to say yes to God.

And hey, women listening, maybe God has called you to do something and you're weighing it out. Obey. Listen, watch and see, or say no and freeze. I don't know where you are, but I'm going to encourage you as I always do to find your brave and live your vision. My guest today, Julie West, has her latest release, Exiting Egypt: Lessons From The Life of an Exiled Prince, Julie, thank you so much for being with us. We look forward to all that God is going to do in your life. And by the way, ladies, it is contagious. So now that you've been exposed to this freedom, get ready. God's got more for you. Braveheart is gone saying goodbye. We'll see you next time!

Bye, Julie!