Several months ago, I began noticing Sarah Trent's writings on Facebook. She always nails emotions I have experienced. Her expressive writing communicates deep emotional anguish beside steady foundational faith. Readers come away encouraged and inspired. My faith has been invigorated by Sarah's writings. I think her words will minister to you, as well.
Sarah's writing is heartfelt and deeply moving. I have shared several of her pieces on my Facebook wall. She touches on grief and doubt, comfort and faith.
On March 26th, I prefaced her post with a quote used in my book, Watching the Wayward: Psalms for Parents of Prodigals. I wrote, "Doubt and questions do not negate faith - they express it with tears and hope - as Sue Bohlin expresses, '[God] receives more glory through limping people who are dependent on Him, than healthy people who breeze through life independent of Him.'"
Here is the devotional Sarah shared that day:
"You believe God is good…
but your heart still
trembles at what His goodness has allowed.
You say it with your
mouth, He is faithful, He is kind, He is just, but your chest tightens when you
trace the outline of your own story.
Because somewhere
between what you know
and what you’ve lived,
there is a tension that feels like it might tear you in two.
You have seen too much
to call this easy.
You have buried things
you never thought would die. You have watched prayers fall to the ground like
shattered glass,
sharp enough to cut you
when you try to pick them back up again.
And still, you whisper,
God is good.
But it doesn’t come out
like a shout.
It comes out like a
question wrapped in trembling.
You are not faithless.
You are wounded.
Because there is a
difference between doubting His character
and struggling to
reconcile His permission.
You don’t question who
He is,
you question why He
allowed this.
Why He stood still
when everything in you
was breaking.
Why He remained silent
when one word could
have stopped it all.
Why His hands, that
formed galaxies,
did not reach down and
interrupt the unraveling of your life.
And somewhere deep
inside,
you wrestle with the
quiet ache of it:
If You are good… why
did this happen?
But this ache does not
disqualify your faith.
It reveals it.
Because real faith does
not exist in the absence of pain—it is forged in the presence of questions
that have not yet been
answered.
It is the kind of faith
that sits in the ashes
and still turns its
face toward heaven,
even when heaven feels
unbearably still.
It is the kind of faith
that weeps at the feet of Jesus and says, I know You could have stopped
this…and I still don’t understand why You didn’t.
And yet, it does not
walk away.
Listen…
God is not threatened
by your grief.
He is not offended by
your confusion.
He does not recoil at
your questions.
He steps into them.
The same God you call
good
is the God who entered
suffering Himself,
who did not explain
pain from a distance,
but wore it in His own
body.
He knows what it is to
cry out,
to feel the weight of
what was allowed,
to carry a story that
looks like loss
before it ever looks
like redemption.
So when you say,
“I believe You are
good, but I don’t know how to be okay with what You allowed…”
He does not silence
you.
He draws nearer.
Because somewhere in
the sacred space
between your belief and
your breaking,
He is doing something
you cannot yet see—
Not wasting.
Not overlooking.
Not ignoring.
But weaving.
Thread by thread,
through tears you did
not choose,
through nights you
could not escape,
through pain that felt
unnecessary and cruel,
He is crafting a
redemption
that will one day make
your trembling voice steady again.
Not because you will
forget what happened,
but because you will
see what He was doing
in the parts you
thought were abandoned.
And one day, not today,
maybe not soon,
but one day, your voice
will rise again,
not as a question,
but as a knowing:
He was good… even
there.
Until then, you are
allowed to grieve what has happened while still clinging to who He is.
You are allowed to say,
“I trust You… but this
hurts.”
And that is not the
absence of faith.
That is faith, with
tears in its eyes
and heaven still in its
sight."
I had no way of knowing, at that time, that the words would ring even truer after my son's untimely death. How apt the above devotional is for the emotions I'm currently battling. I take great comfort in Sarah's words and thoughts. They reflect my struggles well and fix my gaze back on God. That is why I snapped up her devotional book,
Launch Out into the Deep, when it became available in early April. You can read my
book review of her book here. Her effective writing drove me to seek an interview for an author spotlight and she kindly agreed.
Q1: I've been following your inspiring pieces on Facebook for 6 months. I'm trying to place them in a category. Would you call them poems? Micro-essays? Devotionals? Or merely social media posts?
Sarah: I have always called them devotions, but I’m not
sure what the perfect term would be! Most of them are simply love notes from
the Lord.
Q2: Your writing clearly reveals that you have endured great losses and challenges in your young life. If comfortable, can you share the deep waters you've survived? What helps you endure? What is key to rising above challenges, in your view?
Sarah: I have
had 4 miscarriages. Several of those have been extremely traumatic, and one of
them almost took my life as well. Those are things I NEVER would’ve chosen. And
honestly, some days, I still battle with WHY? What is the purpose? Although I
would never have chosen this road, this grief, for myself…I have been able to
reach people I never would’ve been able to otherwise. One of my most traumatic
miscarriages, I remember begging the Lord for this to not happen, this to not
be my reality. And he said, “if it has to be Gethsemane, will you love me
anyway?” And to be honest, I didn’t always love him. I would be angry, and
hurt, and frustrated with the things he had allowed. But there came a point in
time where I had to decide that either God was God or he was not. He was either
good, or he was not. He was either faithful, or he was not. Sometimes in those
deep, dark places…we have to decide whether we are going to believe he is God
or not. Even if nothing feels right, nothing is right, nothing looks good. I
have to choose him. I have to choose whether “though he slay me, yet I will
trust in him.” That’s a hard place to be, but if you’re going to make it out of
the darkness, I truly believe you have to come to that place where you choose
him anyways.
Q3: Such true insights! Even when the outcome is not what we believed God's will would bring, we must choose Him anyway! For years I kept my writing mostly to myself. In my own deep waters, with our prodigal son, God gave words (prayers) to articulate the struggle and I felt convicted that others might find blessing in their expression. Can you tell us what started your writing journey?
Sarah: I started writing “devotions” in high
school. I loved to study, and I loved to write. I didn’t have social media at
the time, but I had a little email list that would read them. My dad printed
them all and has kept them.💛
I slowed down on writing when I began working full time and got married. When I
experienced my first miscarriage, I stopped altogether. I had no desire to read
my Bible for myself, much less to write for someone else. I had my first live
birth, and had PPD. During that season, I began to write again, and share them
on Facebook. I was a little concerned about what people would think or say, but
I desperately needed an outlet. During my second miscarriage, I began to write
more. And I stopped caring what anyone thought. Everything was raw and real.
And it has increased since that point.
Q4: Pain certainly drives us to prayer and writing. You are a mother of small children and a photographer. How do you carve out time to write? What is your greatest writing challenge, and how has God carried you through that?
Sarah: None of my kids have been good sleepers! They
have all been rough through the night. But that is when the Lord usually helps
me the most, in the night, when no one else is aware, and I’m sitting up with a
baby or toddler who hates sleep. One thing I do struggle with is burn out, just
being exhausted all together. So I am trying to do better with “breaks” and
realizing that I don’t HAVE to show up every day if it’s too much. The people I
live with have to come first💛
Q5: Your posts receive great response and interaction. Did the following come quickly for you?
Sarah: No, the following was NOT quick. I posted for
several years with very little engagement. But that was fine, I was doing what
I knew I needed to do, and that was enough. I remember the post that really
grew my page, was one about Mary’s mother. And how she likely raised Mary to be
who she was. My following went from a few people that I knew for the most part,
to over 10 k over night! With that came A LOT of trolls and nasty comments as
well. Even a few death threats (people are insane). But that’s when my page
began to grow some💛
Q6: That's crazy! Another impressive aspect is your depth of dependence on God's Word. Each piece draws heavily on biblical verses and principles. Can you tell us about the process between the Word and the writings? Are you in a passage that triggers a response? Do you begin with an idea and find support from God's Word?
Sarah: It’s a
bit of both! Sometimes I draw from what I’m reading in God’s Word and begin
writing from a passage, other times I’m driving down the road or up in the
night and I have a thought and then I search for evidence from God's Word. My
opinion means nothing unless it has God’s Word to back it up!
Q7: That's exactly the same process I followed in writing the prayer poems in my book. Sometimes God prompts something in response to God's Word. Sometimes God prompts ideas and provides wisdom from His Word. I think your words resonate with many. We all carry burdens. Do you feel "called to create" (as Jordan Raynor puts it)? What do you want your words to accomplish as you post them on Facebook?
Sarah: The Lord has opened a huge door for me, as far
as posting on social media. I feel like I need to steward that opportunity
well, and that’s why I definitely think it is an avenue of ministry. Especially
in this season of my life!
Q8: I've been blessed by your ministry and believe you are stewarding well! Your first book, Launch Out into the Deep, was published by Redemption Press in April. It is a collection of devotional thoughts. I was a happy winner of a physical copy. Since I had already purchased the e-book, I sent my copy off to a very good friend whose burdens are unusually heavy. What led to the publication of that book? How did you determine its framework and what pieces to include?
Sarah: They actually reached out to me about
publishing! That book was a total God thing and an answer to prayers I had
prayed for quite a while about wanting to have a book in print. I cannot say
enough good things about the team I worked with, and how they individually
walked with the Lord. They were so kind and patient with me in my ignorance of
the publishing process. Yet they took my mission and goal with my book so
seriously!
Q9: I love how your writing honestly addresses lament, while leading to worship. Some consider the expression of lament as something sinful, a distrust of God in some way. I'm with Mark Vroegop (author of Dark Clouds, Deep Mercy), who views lament as evidence of faith when it leads to worship. What helps you move from loss and grief to praise and worship? Is it a saturation of scripture? A shift in perspective? The prayers of others?
Sarah: We have
an entire book of our Bible called LAMENTATIONS, yet most people don’t know
anything about lament. It’s such a taboo topic. Even Job’s friends thought he
must’ve sinned somehow to experience such pain. Job’s story ends with the latter
end being better than the beginning. But the whole book is included. The whole
story is there, the good, the bad, and the ugly parts. We need more people who
are willing to say, “yes, this isn’t great, this STINKS. But the latter end is
coming. This is not the end.” Instead of a bunch of platitudes that don’t
actually help. I think lament is a beautiful thing, and a necessary thing. It’s
worship, and it’s inviting God into where you are. I hope the things I write
encourage people to be more open, and hide less. Because God is the God of good
times, and bad. The latter end is coming, just like Job’s, so I can worship Him
here.
Q10: As you continue writing on Facebook, do you have plans to publish another book in the future? What topic might you choose for such a book? What is the best way for my blog readers to find your writing?
Sarah: I would love to write more books! I’m just
waiting for the Lord to open doors. I have several “in mind,” but I would love
to do one from the perspectives of biblical characters. I have written several
devotionals on those topics and I think I have enough for a solid book! But
whenever, and whatever doors the Lord opens…I want to be ready to walk through
them. I have Facebook, Instagram, and a substack as well! A lot of people who enjoy
reading, subscribe to my substack, because it’s sent to their email and no
socials are required! I would love to have any one follow along💛
Many thanks to Sarah for fielding my questions and sharing her inspiring work. I hope you take a moment to read some of her writings and follow her on Facebook, Instagram, or Substack. I encourage you to purchase her book. The beauty of the paperback copy is that you can interact with the pieces by writing in the allotted space after each devotional. However, the e-book allows easy access on your phone or Kindle, while out and about, needing some words to bolster and inspire. Thanks again, Sarah! May God continue to bless and multiply your gifts.
