How do you find peace when life doesn’t go according to plan?

In this powerful episode of the Collide Podcast, we sit down with Kara Stout to talk about finding calm in the midst of anxiety, suffering, and uncertainty. She shares her story of heartbreaking loss, medical crisis, and waiting seasons, offering insights on trusting God’s timing and experiencing His peace even when circumstances feel overwhelming. Whether you’re navigating hardship, wrestling with fear, or longing for healing, this episode will remind you that God is sovereign, near, and able to restore your troubled heart.

Meet Kara Stout

Kara is a writer, speaker, and adoptive mom whose story of faith through suffering is inspiring women to find peace in God’s presence. After facing a life-threatening medical condition, infertility, financial struggles, and the devastating loss of both her parents to cancer, Kara discovered a deeper dependency on God that transformed her life. She is the author of An Untroubled Heart: Calming Anxiety and Finding God’s Peace, a 30-day devotional that invites readers to experience comfort and calm in God’s Word. Kara is passionate about encouraging women in their faith, pointing them to their Great Comforter and Greatest Companion. Her story is a powerful example of resilience, hope, and healing in Christ.

In This Episode, You’ll Learn

• How to experience God’s peace when your heart feels troubled
• Why waiting seasons can shape trust and faith in God’s timing
• How prayer and Scripture can calm anxiety and bring daily strength
• The ways loss and suffering can deepen dependency on God
• Practical steps to seek God’s presence when fear or worry overwhelm

How This Episode Will Encourage You

If you’ve ever felt overcome by anxiety, grief, or uncertainty, this episode will remind you that you don’t have to face it alone. You’ll be encouraged to rest in God’s presence, trust His timing, and discover the peace that truly surpasses understanding.

Birds and Lilies Bible Study - Offers a biblical perspective to today’s “anxiety culture,” guiding women toward peace, faith, and trust in God’s faithful provision.

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Hey there. This is Willow Weston, and I'm so glad you hopped on the podcast today. I don't know how you're doing with your peace level, man.

If I were to do a scale of 1 to 10 on my peace or on my anxiety, I. I'm thinking, ooh, I. This interview might be for me, and maybe it's for you. I just sat down with Kara Stout.

She's the author of a book called An Untroubled Heart, Calming Anxiety and Finding God's Peace. And anxiety is. And I mentioned this in the interview, it's become a. An epidemic in our country.

Our kids are anxious, our friends are anxious, we're anxious, everyone's anxious. And it feels like there's anxiety producing events on the regular that are causing more anxiety. And we're just in general, in need of peace.

And Kara has been through so many things. I mean, this woman has had a carotid artery dissection. She struggled. She. She waited for 10 years through infertility to. To become a mom.

She has lost both of her parents, and so she's gone through so much, and she invites us into this deeper intimacy with God in the middle of suffering, in the middle of our anxious, worried thoughts, in the middle of not feeling like God is showing up and answering our prayers. So take a listen. Kara, I'm so glad you hopped on the Collide podcast today.

Thank you, Willow. I'm so happy to be talking with you.

I know you've been sick, so I'm glad that you've risen back up and you're coming back into the land of the living.

That's right. Oh, my goodness. Yeah, I was pretty knocked out for about two weeks.

Oh, my gosh.

Yes.

Crazy.

Yeah. So thank God for his healing.

And isn't it amazing how when you get sick and you start to feel better, you become really thankful for basic things.

That's right. Exactly. Yes. Like feeling good so you can get up and do things and. Yeah. Take care of yourself.

Right. Like that you kind of take for granted.

That's right. Yeah. So true.

Well, I love. I love that we get to talk today. You authored a book called An Untroubled Heart. Yes. Calming Anxiety and Finding God's Peace.

There's so many things we will talk about today, I'm sure, about anxiety and peace. But what made you write this?

What are you seeing happening in people's lives, in your own life, where you thought we really need some help with our troubled hearts.

Yes. So really the book is about calming anxiety and finding God's Peace.

Not in perfect circumstances or in a life without difficulties, but right in the middle of it. Right in the middle of it all. And I.

And I feel like there's just been an increase of anxiety, of anxious thoughts, of, you know, trials and suffering which we do endure in this life. But it feels very heightened over the last several years. And so I felt God press on my heart his daughters.

His daughters who really needed some words to give encouragement, hope, and healing in the seasons, whatever seasons that they're in, whatever trials they're walking through.

And that's really what drove this, is thinking about his daughters who really could use these reminders that have personally been helpful for me, what he personally taught me through my suffering. I wanted to share within the pages of this book and, you know, really how to, like, how do we truly and entirely rely on God to be our peace?

That is what he taught me and continues to teach me. And that's really the heart behind the book, too, is, like, how do we do that?

I mean, they're saying that anxiety is an epidemic in our country. I. I've done some research because I actually wrote a Bible study on anxiety.

And, I mean, they're compari what the average sort of high schooler is going through right now to. I think it's something like people In World War II, like, what they went through.

There's just so much turmoil and pressure and feels like the world's on fire and there's just all of these things. Anxiety is. Is through the roof right now. So it feels like your message comes at a time when we definitely need it.

You mentioned your own suffering and things that you've learned.

Can you invite us into a little bit about that experience that you've had and those experiences, I should say, and how you learned in the midst of those how to lean into God for peace.

Yeah. So I can give a few examples, and then we can dive into whichever ones, but. And I share more about it, about these experiences in the book.

So I had all the symptoms of a stroke, but, praise God, it was not a stroke. And, you know, in that experience, I really felt God's peace. I remember, like, my husband driving me to the hospital, and I felt so much peace.

It just didn't make sense. Even though I knew. I knew something was wrong and I knew it had to do with my brain. I just didn't know what it was.

And then I was in the hospital for five days on blood thinners. Thank God I didn't have to have surgery, but they had to monitor me for that. And.

And I talk about this in the book, that I really felt the tenderness of Jesus in that in those days, I was so weak. I was so physically weak. But I remember a vision of Jesus.

I got a vision of Jesus when I was walking to the bathroom with my IV hooked up and of him carrying me. Like, literally, I could physically see him carrying me and holding me up in my. In my weakness.

And you know, what's interesting is in that moment, I wasn't going to God as much as I do now. My faith at that point wasn't as strong, I guess you could say, as it is now. But God was so present. And I feel like that is something I've seen too.

Him pursuing me, you know, through my life and through my suffering. And also me pursuing him like the two of those, and the impact of, like, his tenderness in both. And so.

And then I just want to say, because then there was a contrast. So I felt a lot of peace while I was in the hospital.

But then when I came home, that's when I felt anxiety and I felt anxious, like, is this going to happen again? That's what I started worrying about. Like, am I going to have another carotid artery dissection or am I going to have a stroke?

Because that can happen with a carotid artery dissection. You can have a stroke. So I started worrying about. That was hard for me to sleep. I was worried about work. Like, how am I going to go back to work?

I ended up taking a medical leave for several months. But. And. But in that. Even in the middle of that anxiety that I felt again, I felt God's tenderness toward me and his compassion.

And I feel like that's a good reminder for us that when we do feel anxious that God meets us with compassion and not condemnation. He doesn't, you know, it doesn't upset him, you know, when we do bring these. These anxious thoughts to Him.

And I don't think it's an indicator of a lack of faith. I think it's an honest response to life's suffering and trials at times.

And in those, we are trusting him to be the one who relieves the troubles of our hearts. So that's where I really feel like I see f. Faith is like, okay, God, this is hard. This is painful.

I don't understand but in faith, I'm trusting you to relieve my worries and to give me the strength that I need. And he is so faithful and good that he does. He gives us that strength, and he does give us that peace when we just honestly share with Him.

Kara, you mentioned this vision that you got in the hospital, Jesus carrying you. Is that something you'd experienced before, or was that the first time that God gave you a vision?

That was the first time, yeah.

Really? So you are in this extremely scary circumstance in so many ways. You have zero control on how this is going to go.

And you have your first experience of a vision, and the vision is. Is of Jesus carrying you. I mean, what a beautiful picture that he gave you in that time. And it so aligns with His Word.

It's really cool that he gave you that gift. You talk about the contrast. You had this sort of overwhelming peace.

I love that you say it was a piece that doesn't make sense because Scripture talks about a piece that transcends understanding. It is like a peace that doesn't make any sense on paper. Right. You had that in the hospital. You get home and anxiety kicks in.

That makes sense to me because I'm sure you're like so many of us where we start finding ourselves ruminating on all the negative, hypothetical scenarios that could go wrong. What if this. This could happen. This could happen. This could happen. This can happen.

I don't know if you do this, but did you find yourself because I do this, where I don't even clue in that it could have been the last 15 minutes, where my mind just spent 15 minutes ruminating on negative what ifs, and I don't even know I'm doing it. And I almost have to, like, wake up and go, oh, my goodness. Like, I'm not bringing my anxious thoughts to Jesus. I'm instead just. They're like.

It's like a song on repeat. I mean, was that a little bit what was happening with you?

Yes.

And really, I love that you're bringing this up, because that's a big point that I try to make through the book, is to go to God quickly, to not delay. And I feel like that is a big thing he's taught me through the carotid artery dissection, through other trials that I've walked through.

And I share, too, about this. I lost both of my parents to cancer. And all through that, a big thing of how God taught me to rely on him was to go to him quickly, to not delay.

And I talk about this, too, about looking at Anxiety as a signal to alert us to go to God and to not, you know, and I liken it to, like, a car when, like, the light, you know, pops on to go to the mechanic or get something looked at and fixed. Like, you don't want to delay that. You. You want to take it in. You want it to get fixed.

And so I feel like that is a helpful way to look at it as, like, okay, I'm feeling overwhelmed. I'm feeling worried. I'm gonna. I'm gonna go to God quickly. I'm gonna say, God, I need your help. I need your perspective.

Please relieve these worries, you know, help me to cast my anxiety on you. And that is a really beautiful piece that I think it's good for us to remember that. It says to cast our anxiety on him. Why? Because he cares for us.

You know, I just think that's so beautiful if we really pause and think about that, like, he. He's inviting us to give us our worries because he loves us, because he cares for us.

And I think that that really helps us to go into that invitation, you know, with just honesty and a need for our Father, you know, and. Which also creates such intimacy with him.

When you say, go to God quickly, because I love the idea of don't delay, because that kind of snaps you out of that. Oh, I've been ruminating for 30 minutes on everything that sucks about my life.

When you say, go to God quickly, I think there's some women listening who maybe don't know what that looks like like, or they have a one. One way that can look. So what can going to God look like?

I love that. Well, when I say that, I typically am referring to prayer. You know, like, we pray, it encourages us to pray without ceasing. Right.

So it's this continual conversation with God throughout the day. You know, lord, help me and. And these prayers, you know, when I say, go, go to God quickly.

Oftentimes when we need his help quickly, it's like it's in the middle of something or it's just really hard. And a short prayer, you know, like, Jesus, help me. I need your help. Or help me to know that you're with me. You know, just. It could be a variety of.

Just quick ways to reach out to him. That is the main thing I say is go to him quickly. Go to him quickly in prayer. And.

But that could also look like other things, too, you know, like, you. I. I believe you mentioned worship music. Did you. I feel like maybe. Oh, no.

In this conversation. No, no. But I mean, I like worship music. We can talk about that. Yeah.

I don't know why, but maybe that's why. Maybe we just. Yeah.

You know, putting a worship music, you know, worship music on a song, you know, to just really shift our mind and our hearts on worship and praise. Because worship does disrupt worry. It really does. When we worship, you know, with a song or we sing, we can sing too.

You know, I've really noticed that that shifts worry and diminishes it. So that could be one thing too. So if it's quick in the moment, those would be my suggestions would be prayer and worship.

I think that there's a lot of women who have anxiety and they feel like I have prayed about it. I've prayed over and over again, and I'm still stuck in this sort of like paralytic constant state of worry and frenzy, panic and anxiety.

What's your advice for them if that's the case?

Yeah, that's a great question. And I do mention that also in the book about persistent prayer.

And what do you do when relief doesn't come in the time frame that we so desperately want? And I remember very much feeling that way. We have a daughter, she's going to be 22 months old tomorrow, and we adopted her.

And so early on in early motherhood, I remember I was just sleep deprived and just overwhelmed by a variety of things. And I remember praying God, like, I need your help. And I remember feeling at times like I don't, I'm not feeling his help.

Like, where is your help, Lord? Where are you? And I would be honest in that way with him.

I, you know, I would be respectful, but I would be honest, like, lord, I'm not feeling your help. Like, I really need your help.

But you know, there's a moment where in that persistent, like in that prayer when we don't feel like he's hearing us, where there's a temptation to give up and to stop praying about something. But I really feel like he, he taught me, no, keep, keep being persistent. Keep praying. And I did. And so I did.

Even though I was like, I'm not, I'm not feeling your help. I just kept praying and praying. And his help did come. And sometimes it comes in a way we don't anticipate or it comes later on.

Maybe he's doing something in that time frame, transforming us, transforming our hearts, helping us to be more dependent on him, which really is a gift.

So I guess I would just encourage that listener to just continue, just be persistent, keep leaning in, just Keep leaning in and asking for his, his help, his strength, his peace. And I just for me personally, that's what's really helped me.

We live in what some are calling the anxiety culture. We worry as friends, daughters, mothers and grandmothers. We're getting gray hairs because we're nervous Nellies.

We're taking chill pills because we're worried sick. For some of us, one second we can be doing okay and the next a Facebook post sends us into anxious fill.

As you engage scripture, read personal stories and reflect on questions that invite you to new places, you will be challenged, encouraged and inspired by this study. We can't wait for you to dive in, so go to wecollide.net/store to get your copy of the Birds and the Lilies.

Just continue, just be persistent. Keep leaning in. Just keep leaning in and asking for his. His help, his strength, his peace.

And I just for me personally, that's what's really helped me.

Let's talk a little bit about God's timing and how you have a, you have a way of encouraging people to believe that, that God is sovereign. Talk to us a little bit about this idea of God being sovereign.

Yes. So that for me, when my mom, okay, so I mentioned both of my parents passed away. They both passed away from cancer 12 years apart.

So my dad passed away first and then my, my mom passed away 12 years later. And for me that gave me a lot of peace, is that God is sovereign. And I don't say that in a way of like it doesn't patch over the pain or the grief.

And I very much feel like we can hold both. We can hold both the truth. That grief is so painful. My heart was shattered, like absolutely broken to lose both parents.

And it radically changed me and it changed my faith and it gave me this perspective of heaven and eternity that I didn't have before. And I thank God for that because it really did change the way I see life.

And in that is where I really saw the rest that I had when I rested in the truth of God's sovereignty. Like this doesn't make sense, Lord. I don't know why I had to lose both of my parents. And I don't understand that.

But I do know and believe that you are sovereign and that you are good. And I can come to you with my pain, also with that, with the truth. Of the loss of my parents and also simultaneously feel peace that he's sovereign.

Like, I really feel like it's important for us to know that we can hold both. You know, when we say God is sovereign, it doesn't dismiss the pain.

And I think that's an important thing for us to remember in this life, that we shouldn't bypass, you know, our pain or our emotions and that we go to God with those. And that's where for me, he's given me so much peace. And really, I want to say, too, there was so much joy.

Like, when I was walking with my mom through her cancer treatments. It was extremely hard, but there was this heavenly joy. Again, that didn't make sense. It didn't make sense because, like, my mom was my best friend.

Like, we were so close. And I really remember thinking, like, I don't think I'll ever be happy again after. After she.

I say leaves for she left for heaven, because I know where she's at. But, you know, I really, really sat one time on her bed before she had passed away, and I was like, I just don't think I'm going to be happy again.

And, you know, but there was this joy that was underneath all of that. Again, that just doesn't make sense. And that's the joy of Christ, of Jesus, of eternity, that really, truly this life is not the end.

You know, we have eternity and heaven. And so I just thank God that He really gave me that perspective in all of that, which really gave me this joy.

In the middle of me crying and weeping, I had this joy, and I still have this joy. And I believe that it's this Christian joy, that we all are gifted because of Jesus.

You are saying something important when you're inviting us to not just dismiss our pain and move on to God's promise that he's sovereign and his timing is good and all those things. And I think really what you're saying is, like, hold space for the pain and for the promises.

And it's interesting because sometimes there's some people who are like, I. I can't hold space for my own pain. And I'm just gonna jump right to the promises.

But I think, and this is my opinion, when you dismiss your own pain, you actually don't experience a real healing with Jesus. And so holding pain is so important because that's how you invite him in to come in and really heal you.

Yes.

And some people want to hold pain and they don't want to hold the promise because it feels hard to hold Hope and faith in a God who doesn't seem very good when you're going through this thing that seems so awful, but that also makes holding the pain so very difficult, to do it on your own and not have an eternal mindset that does promise hope and does promise joy and does promise reunions and all of these things. And so I think holding both is so very important.

You talk about not being passive when we're waiting on God, when we're going through something hard, when we don't feel like our prayers are answered. What. What's wrong with passivity? And what does it look like to not be passive?

Hmm. So I'm gonna. I'll give you another example for waiting. So we waited for a child for 10 years.

We walked through infertility for seven, and then the adoption process for three. So it was a total of 10 years of waiting. And so I feel like God really taught me a good amount in that waiting season.

And for me, it not being passive meant to continually pray and ask for God's will. And he really brought me to a point of, like, really stepping back and seeing, like, wow, I just don't see the whole picture. I can't.

None of us can see the whole picture, but God does. And so since I can't, I'm going to depend on the one who can see. And. And I. And I know he's good.

And so I, you know, we read about how, you know, his character, his goodness in his Word, but also we experience it in our own lives, right? His faithfulness. And so I had seen that through my life. So I was like, I know that I can trust because he is good.

Even though sometimes the things that are happening in life are not good, they don't feel good sometimes. Obviously, what he allows doesn't feel good, but that doesn't mean that he's not good.

And also that he's working things out that are for our good and his glory. And.

And so in the waiting, that was part of it, but also with, okay, so for the infertility and the adoption is just continually in that we were like, lord, what are our next steps? So I feel like in the waiting season for people, it can be like, what is this next step? Just this one next step.

Like, I can't see the full, you know, picture. I don't know how this is going to turn out. Like, there were definitely years, like, mother's days would go by, and I was still not a mother.

It was so painful. And there were times where the unknown was the unknown can be so painful.

And I was a lot of times, like, I really don't know if I'm ever going to be a mother. Like, I really just didn't know. But I kept saying, okay, Lord, well, do we seek fertility treatments? Do we seek adoption?

And then within the adoption process, you're praying literally throughout that, like, do you present to this situation? You know, like, there's just all these decisions that can be made within whatever waiting season people are in.

And so that's really, again, such an invitation to rely on God, because, like, think about that. Like, how much do we rely on God when we're waiting? There's so much reliance and dependence upon him, which also grows our faith and our peace.

It really does grow our peace because he's our peace.

And so if we continue, if we're leaning on him, we're going to be given this peace because we're just completely trusting him to walk us through this waiting season. And now, on the side of the other side, where I look at Nora, who is our daughter, and I'm like, wow, I would wait again for her for 10 years.

She's my daughter. She was it all along. I had to wait. She came into this world at exactly the right time. She was supposed to come into this world, like, all of us.

And God had to, you know, do some work in me, transform me, you know, mature me, prepare me to be the mother that I need to be for Nora. And I feel like that's, again, for any of us, like, if we're waiting on God, lean into.

Lean into what he's doing as far as transforming us, maturing us. There's so much that he does within the waiting. And I just think it's a detriment if we. If we try to rush through it.

Even though, again, it's one of those things where I say, like, it doesn't mean it's easy. I mean, 10 years for a child is very hard. But it's worth it to wait on God.

I love so much that you talk about Nora. Your face lit up and you said, I would wait again for her for 10 years. Yes. That's such a beautiful statement.

I'm curious, when you think about that, if you could go back and say something to the you that was in the waiting, now that you've seen what you were waiting for, what would you want to say to yourself?

I love that. It's a beautiful question. I honestly would hesitate to even tell myself that a daughter is coming.

And the reason I say that is because, like, I Said, I think that might steal my growth in that waiting, you know, Like, I think that might diminish what God was teaching me. And I know that that might sound harsh to myself, but I just think there's a reason that I didn't know.

And, you know, but I think what I would encourage myself is, you know, like, kind of what I was saying. Like, God is good and he's worthy to be trusted, and you will see goodness.

And I think too, what God brought me through, and I remember he brought me to a point in my waiting where I was like, wow, Lord, whether I'm a mother or not, I know I'm going to see your goodness. And that's when I really was like, okay, he brought me to complete submission and surrender. But that took years.

And I do think if I would have known, I would have been a mother, I do think I would have missed out on this relationship that I have been growing with the Lord. And it's the most precious relationship of our lives is with him and growing in intimacy, dependency, communion with Him.

And that's really where it grows, is in the depth of these times of waiting or suffering or trials.

But also, I want to say, in really good times, too, you know, I feel like we do give a lot of necessary conversation about seeing God in the valley, but also, like, when things are really beautiful, that's a time to also rejoice in the Lord and really lean in and learn Him.

In that season, too, I think is so important to not neglect him, you know, when things are going really well, but in both, like, really still being utterly dependent on him in all kinds of seasons, in every season.

I think what's interesting to me about your answer when it comes to if you could go back and speak into the 10 years of you waiting, is that you're inviting something deeper. You're not talking about holding on to hope in the outcome of something.

You're talking about holding on to hope in God's character that even in the midst of waiting, you were going to count on him to be good. Even if you didn't get what you want, even if you don't understand, even if it doesn't make sense, even if you don't like it.

And that's just a deeper invitation that a lot of us, we don't want to say yes to it, but it's an invitation that comes by all of our doors and. And it knocks. And we can keep hoping for outcomes, right?

But there's a God who is wanting us to put our hope in who he is rather than what he can do for us. And so I just appreciate you hopping on and sharing your story.

And I know we only touch the surface, but there's going to be women who want to hear more about Kara Stout in all that God's in your life and how they can calm their anxiety and find more of God's peace. So how can they. How can they do that?

Yes. So the, the book is on Amazon and it's also.

I have a website also karastout.com and that has links to not only Amazon, but other book retailers as well. It's available at Target, Barnes and Noble.

Those links are all on my website and I'm also on Instagram, Sincerely by Kara, where I share prayers and Bible reading plans and encouragement.

Love it. Thank you for being on today, Kara.

Thank you, Willow. I loved this conversation. Thank you so much for having me.

Friend.

I don't know about you, but I did just love when Kara talked about her love of her kid Nora, and how she would have waited 10 more years for some reason, that just gave me some kind of like, endurance or perseverance or something for the waiting that I'm doing in my own life. And I hope it gave you some for the waiting you're doing in yours.

I want to be a person who holds hope and faith that God truly does know best, that his timing is best. And actually sometimes he has something even better for us than the thing that we might choose.

And so if you're waiting for a prayer to be answered right now, if you're feeling overwhelmed by anxious thoughts, if you are in need of some peace, I hope that you can collide with Jesus, that you can enter into his presence.

Whether you feel hurried today, whether you haven't done that in a very long time, or whether you do it all the time, my hope is that you can enter in and come before God and tell him what you're anxious about. That's that casting thing, right? It's just literally, you can go to God and you can be like, God, I'm thinking about this and I'm worried about this.

I'm thinking it. And you can feel like you're just puking all over him. But the thing is about God is that he's a perfect father.

And I know as a parent, like, hey, if my kid came to me and said, mom, in fact, I had this, I had this, you know, last week my, my kid told me, I'm so overwhelmed, Mom, I'm so overwhelmed. And I saw, almost like this, I thought he might cry, but he was just telling me he's so overwhelmed and I didn't feel like he was burdening me.

I didn't feel like I wished he wouldn't have told me. I didn't feel like, oh, well, you shouldn't be overwhelmed.

I was so glad that he felt connected enough to me that he could come to me and tell me how he's feeling. And so you have this perfect father.

You can go to him and you can cast your anxiety on him because he cares about you and it doesn't matter if it's more than overwhelmed.