# @hopewdm on Instagram

- **Type:** Image
- **Original URL:** https://www.instagram.com/p/DHJCpNQNcd0
- **Gondola URL:** https://gondola.cc/posts/27352925-hopewdm-instagram
- **Thumbnail:** https://img.gondola.cc/tr:w-,h-,fo-auto/postThumbnails/66cc49b504.jpg
- **Posted:** 2025-03-13T13:30:44.000+00:00
- **Account Owner:** HOPE (@HopeWDM) — https://gondola.cc/HopeWDM

## Caption

Throughout my childhood and into college, I knew God but wasn’t devoted in my faith. I was living for this world and knew something was missing, but I couldn’t understand what. Until May 2018 ...

Over Memorial Day weekend, my friends and I were involved in a traumatic boating accident that left my best friend with life-altering injuries. I had so much hope God would save him. I prayed for God to heal him and restore his quality of life, and I thought I saw God healing him on this side of heaven.
 
When he died, all my hope was gone. I was lost, and thought, “God, did you not hear any of my prayers?” I was angrier at God than I had ever been and blamed him for all my pain. I chose to take a step back from my faith and didn’t go to church, read my Bible, pray, or want anything to do with God.
 
This continued for a couple of years until I got a nudge to go to REVIVE, Hope’s young adult ministry. As the service ended, I got another nudge to receive prayer. I told my prayer partner about my pain and anger, and I will never forget their response: “You know it hurts God’s heart, too, that your friend died and you’re going through this.”
 
That changed everything for me. My whole perspective switched from anger and blaming God to feeling comforted that he was in my pain with me. I didn’t look back after that and wholeheartedly jumped into what God had for me. I continued going to REVIVE and church regularly, started reading my Bible and praying again, and even signed up for the Alpha course.

Alpha is where I fell absolutely in love with Jesus and discovered what I was missing. I developed a deep relationship with him that I never knew was possible. I also gained the greatest of friends and a community that loves me like family and encourages me in my faith.

Giving God a front-row seat to our lives and pain allows us to see the beauty he is creating. In my deepest pain, I learned that we serve a loving God who is never absent, walks in our pain with us, and takes on any anger or blame we throw at him, only for him to love us just the same.

Holly P.
#HopeStories

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## Credits

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## Tags

hopestories

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