Women Who Turned Their Mess Into Their Message: Part One: Linda Kuhar

I’m taking this week to prepare for our son’s high school graduation open house {and nurse my horrid chest cold–prayers welcomed!} And so, I am having some guests on this week; women with amazing stories of how, with God’s power, they overcame an obstacle, adversity or tragedy they never asked for in their life.

For one, it was medical and life-threatening. For the second, it was when her marriage was rocked. Not just by the fact that her husband had been unfaithful to her but also by the discovery that the woman was pregnant with his child. The third guest has a very rare disease that caused her to lose her leg. However, when she lost a limb, she gained a ministry.

Each of these women turned their mess into their message. {I wish I could take credit for that clever saying, but I actually heard it somewhere a few years back. Can’t remember where but I’ve never forgotten it!}

Today, let’s start off the week with our first guest, a woman named Linda.

I met Linda at our Proverbs 31 She Speaks Intensive writers and speakers conference in January when when was in my writer’s small group. As the women in our fabulous group took turns sharing what they wanted to write about, my heart skipped a beat when Linda shared.

She didn’t feel called to share about a certain topic or passion. She felt called to share her story; a story that includes her having advanced cancer, being in a coma and nearly dying only to now be a normal wife and mom with NO lasting effects. She just radiates Jesus and knows God has a reason for her still being here.

She is now a life coach {and giving away two coaching sessions so be sure to read until the end!} and you can meet her here. {I am off to sort through pictures of my boy for the open house. Translation: I’ll be bawling for the next two hours.}

Linda Kuhar is a Christian Life Coach working with women around the globe.  She received her certification from Christian Coach Institute in 2010, as well as certification as a Certified Human Behavior Consultant in 2011.  In 2012 Linda became a Board Certified Coach with The Center for Credentialing & Education.  She’s honored to serve on the Executive Team at Proverbs 31 Ministries Online Bible Studies.  Linda speaks at organizations such as The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society, Christian radio station New Life 91.9, churches and women’s ministries throughout the Carolinas.

Linda has been married to her high school sweetheart Todd for almost 19 years.  They have an amazing 12-year-old daughter Megan who has a passion and love for art.  You can find Linda’s popular weekly devotional at www.lindakuhar.com.

Here’s Linda:

May 11, 2009 is a day I will never forget.  I had a nagging cough that I had been battling for a few weeks, so I headed to my doctor’s office for a routine sick visit.  The doctor decided to send me for a chest x-ray to see if I had pneumonia.

As I proceeded to the radiologist, I started feeling a little unsettled.  The x-ray technician asked me if I had been experiencing back pain long and immediately my heart sank.   I knew she saw something that was not quite right.

My heart started to race as I waited patiently for the radiologist.  The second I saw his face I started to cry.  “Mrs. Kuhar, you have a 10cm mass behind your heart and we need to do a CAT scan immediately.”

Within days I was diagnosis with Stage 3 cancer.  My life changed permanently within a blink of an eye, and honestly at that point I did not think life could get any worse.  Little did I know that, within months, I would be in a coma on life support given less than a 5 percent chance of ever waking up.

I was in a coma for almost four weeks.  When the doctor’s told the family to start preparing for my funeral, friends and family gathered in a prayer vigil.  It was that very night that changed the outcome of my life.  They prayed for divine intervention and our awesome God provided us with an absolute MIRACLE!

I WOKE UP! Upon regaining consciousness, however, I was told I would never breathe or walk again on my own. Time for another miracle.

A year later, only by the power of God, I wasn’t lying in a hospital bed unable to breathe or walk without help. I was able to do both!

But it doesn’t stop there. Not only could I walk….I COULD RUN!

God proved the medical field wrong once again and I ran my very first half marathon with Team In Training for the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society.  God graciously took those months of chemotherapy and intensive care in the hospital and turned them into 13.1 miles of strengthened vitality.

Today, my life’s purpose is to love and encourage women to be all God created them for through Christian Life Coaching.  You can watch my miracle video here.  I pray my story inspires each of you to never give up and trust that God always has the last word.

GIVEAWAY: Linda is giving two of you who leave comments a one-hour life coaching session. Just tell us this: in what area of life do you currently feel stuck? In procrastination, managing your home or time, negative self-talk or a relationship struggle? Coach Linda’s one hour call can help you begin to ge un-stauck! {winners announced Monday}

 

101 Comments

  1. Hello Linda my name is Megan
    Last year I went in for a simple Routine surgery during my surgery we had some unknown complications. We had thought the surgery went well and I was on my way to a good recovery, well so we thought!!!
    While in the recovery room I started to have problems breathing my o2 stats were dropping to dangerously low, my blood sugar shot up to dangerously high and we noticed that I was having problems going to the restroom. So the nurse put a catheter in go only find blood!! They took me to have a CT done with a die. The fie was only to go on to my bladder and well it went EVERYWHERE!!! At this time my body had been filling and sitting in blood and urine for 26 hours. So they rush me back into the OR to find that my bladder had Ruptured and to seven different pieces. 4 1/2 hours later I come out with a barely reconstructive and a third of my bladder missing. A week in the hospital and two months Home recovering. I finally return to my job of 2 1/2 Years as a pre school teacher to only get fired for no longer being able to do my job duties. Now we have a Financial Burden We try to keep pushing through to only find out our kids are no longer allowed to attend school at their current school and we are losing our house as well. To some it all up all because of one “ simple routine surgery “ I lost a third of my bladder, my beloved job, my kids school and our house of 3 years. I don’t know how to grieve and process all this and find what God is wanting to do.
    Thank you for reading.

  2. Thanks Linda for sharing! I just recovered from Ovarian Cancer, and underwent chemo- now I’m working on healing my body with good nutrition as I still feel the damaging effects of chemo- it’s been a battle with my metabolism as I have entered surgical menopause, weight gain from steroids and hormonal imbalance, fatigue. I thank God as he was gracious to heal me and ovarian cancer is very aggressive and deadly – I was stage 1 ( rare odds as 80% of women at time of their diagnosis are advanced stage 3-4 with 30% survival). That is one miracle that I can praise God for! My deepest pain is my marriage- only married 7 years.. I have a husband who is involved in Christian cult and through his indoctrination he has become verbal and spiritually abusive and once physically as I was going through treatment. My loneliness is great as I see him spent every waking moment involved in this false doctrine & church ministry/ campmeeting / revivals – they tend to be abusive towards women as we don’t have much value. I see my husband as a lost man, his faith is based on works for maintaining his salvation. His ungodly views and doctrine makes marriage and interpersonal relationships very hard. I struggle with depression and I turn to God for hope and guidance of what to do and how to find joy and happiness in an empty marriage. Much needed prayers!

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  4. I’m stuck in procrastination in getting a handle on all the clutter in my house. Ugh!
    Thank you Linda for your inspiring and faith filled story!

  5. Wow Linda, what an inspiring story!! I can’t single out just one of those areas! I have MALT Lymphoma (currently in remission & doing maintenance therapy every 2 months, which started for me on Nov.15, 2010. I was having breakfast and the weeks run down with my pastor, his wife(our very dear friends), their son, my son and my husband. I had been feeling weird for some time, but had not seen a doctor (in depth). One minute I was checking the bacon, the next I was grasping for air. The 4 of us went to the ER, I was having waves of intense pain and gasping for air. When we arrived I was screaming in pain(my friends now tell me about it). They did a CT and found free air in my abdomen, their surgeon wasn’t there so they care flighted me to a bigger town. By the time they put me on the care flight, I was just starting to get relief from my pain. When they went in they found that a tumor had ruptured in my stomach and had leaked all of the poison into my abdomen cavity. They found cancer! They had to take everything out so they could clean it all out, removed the majority of the tumors, took out 3/4 of my stomach and then did a gastric bypass to recreate a stomach. The surgeon said they could not remove it all because of the major trauma that happened to my body and that it would respond well to chemo. I could fill a notebook with the many opportunities God has given me to shine His glory brightly in my life, but I struggle with moving on at this point, finding my “new normal” and figure out how to manage everything; being a mom and wife, my place at church, new possibilities God is showing my families and self-worth. I would really like to know more about this Christian Life Coaching, I might even enjoy learning to become one. Thank you for blessing me with your story!

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