Katherine Wolf says she never had a moment of total despair but she dangled dangerously close once.
At 26 she suffered a massive brain stem stroke and against all odds she lived — but she was left with disabilities. She fought hard for months to regain the ability to sit up, talk and swallow, and one day as her husband, Jay, wheeled her back from rehab to their home she remembers seeing a scene that brought her close to despair.
“I had just failed my ninth swallowing test,” she said, so she still wasn’t able to eat. As she sat in her wheelchair, barely able to hold her head up, she saw her husband and his sisters interacting with her young son, James.
“Clarity came in that moment and I see, ‘This is what should be,’” Katherine Wolf said. “I had this moment where I realized God made a mistake, that I should not be here. I’m caught between life and death and this could not be what God intended for my story.”
‘Unique assignment’
But God impressed upon her heart in that moment that He “had chosen for me this very unique assignment,” she said. “This life, this pain and suffering was somehow God choosing me for something very unique on earth.”
The Wolfs — co-founders of Hope Heals and son and daughter-in-law of Jay Wolf, pastor of First Baptist Church, Montgomery — shared their story June 9 at the Southern Baptist Convention Pastors Conference in Birmingham.
“Not many of you have had a brain stem stroke but I guarantee you’ve had hard stuff in your story,” said Katherine Wolf, who along with Jay spoke on “Blessed are the poor in spirit” (Matt. 5:3).
She encouraged those present to see themselves in her and Jay’s story.
“We like to make a provocative statement — that we are all disabled,” she said. “We all have invisible wheelchairs.”
Jay Wolf said the way of the kingdom of God looks very different than what the world is saying is the way up. It’s an upside-down kingdom — to gain everything you have to get low. The poverty of spirit believers have comes from giving what they have away, he said.
Hope and comfort
“We get to go back to these places of our wounding and not only find healing for ourselves but other people too,” he said. “You’ve been given hope not so that you can be hopeful and given comfort, not so you can be comfortable, but so you can give it away.” (Grace Thornton)
To learn more about Katherine Wolf’s story visit www.hopeheals.com.
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