It’s Not Over: There is Hope After PART 2 - Sheridan Correa - Revival of Hope 2026

women's conference it brings clarity it brings perspective it also gives us authority to do something about it with the Lord but healing doesn't stop at naming what happened we want to recognize what it has impacted and affected in our lives how has it affected us you may have an event but there are events after the event there are effects and impacts that happen it's like a ripple effect so I want you to think what has this done in me sometimes don't don't start writing yet I'm gonna speak a little bit more I'm sorry or you could write while I talk sometimes we were it's easy to recognize what happened but it can be harder to recognize how it has changed our life on the outside and the inside I like to think of the effects of trauma and trials as an iceberg if you look at an iceberg only a small portion is visible above the water and that's what we can easily see it's our behaviors our reactions our habits and our choices but there's a whole lot more going on underneath the iceberg do you have a picture of that in your head that is invisible our thoughts our emotions our fears our beliefs the way that we see ourselves and others and even God and sometimes what we see on the surface is actually a response to what's happening on the inside we may know exactly what happened to us but we haven't yet connected the dots to how it's affecting the way that we feel or think or behave the way that we connect with other people or not connect with other people part of healing is learning to recognize those connections and maybe it affected a relationship or many relationships as in my case maybe it changed the way that you see yourself and even the way that you talk to yourself we all got that person up in our head right we got a mama voice we all got parental voice in here and we all got we all have one that's pretty condemning and shaming and likes to keep us down and tell us how dumb we are and fat and stupid and ugly and nobody likes you and you're not gonna be lovable and nobody's gonna pick you we all have those voices and those are the voices of the enemy but sometimes we can agree with them so much that they become our voice to maybe it's affected your ability to trust yourself you you doubt yourself you

second-guess yourself all the time you don't know who you are and who God says that you are it's even it's even difficult to trust what he says about you maybe you've noticed patterns and how you respond you avoid people places and things you isolate because that's so much safer you become controlling or you just shut down maybe it's affected your physical health you've probably heard the phrase the body keeps the score has anyone heard that it's a great trauma trauma language book sometimes the impact of what we've experienced doesn't just show up in our thoughts and emotions it shows up in our bodies prolonged stress can keep our nervous systems alarm on high alert and it's difficult to turn off we have a brother that we walk alongside complex trauma and his high alert alarm system is like always on and just understanding that that's the effects of what he has walked through gives compassion gives room for grace and for mercy and coming alongside him instead of interpreting it and be like oh my gosh he just hates me and he just rejected me and then in that right don't we do that we look at other people and their behaviors and we're like we're interpreting all of it instead of seeing those behaviors and those visible things as effects of something difficult that they're dealing with on the inside [BLANK_AUDIO] when we're being too much and too double O.C. and give compassion where Jesus does for us also. Anxiety and depression can affect our energy, our appetite, our sleep and just our overall wellbeing. Sometimes we become accustomed to living in survival mode that we don't even know how to recognize how much our bodies have been carrying. I'm one of those. I've carried so much for so long that you add more things on me and it doesn't necessarily get heavier. It's just like, I don't know, I don't even notice it.

You just keep going, keep figuring it out. But what happened may be in the past, but our bodies may still be responding to it in the present. And recognizing that connection isn't about blaming ourselves or our bodies or our health struggles. It's about becoming more aware of how our experience may have affected us as whole people, body, mind and spirit, or maybe somewhere along the way you've just misplaced or straight up left behind hope or completely lost it or may have never even had it. And you stop believing that things could be different. You don't have to identify every impact. I just want you to notice what gets your attention. What does this cost me? What has this changed to me? Where have I learned to believe? What have I learned to believe because of it? And where have I begun to believe that I am powerless and without hope? I'm gonna give you a couple minutes to write. (soft piano music) Let's take a breath. However that was just for you, I want you to take it just a deep breath. Inhaling and exhaling. Did you know that our breath, our lungs are connected to our brain, the part in our brain that calms our nervous system? So doing deep breathing and regular breathing

when something difficult is coming up or you're at a difficult spot that you find yourself during the day, instead of punching somebody, you can breathe. I do like four minute breath work sessions just to calm myself so I don't catch another charge, okay? (laughing) I try to go back to jail today. (laughing) If naming whatever impacted you stirred something that was heavier than you expected, listen, that's normal, you're not broken, you're not damaged, you are a human, having a real experience, okay? So we are not alone, we're all there, you're not stuck there. Does anyone want to share, just two people? How has this impacted your life? No pressure, okay, thank you. Oh, that's good, yeah. The anxiety has made me not feel secure. Yes, gave me a poverty spirit, a spirit of, you know, I've never had much and also trying to control and fix everything so I would be secure. Yes, oh, that's so good. Thank you, thank you. That's it, we'll stop there. Thank you for sharing, that's beautiful. So we have reflected on what has happened, right?

That was our one step, we're gonna keep moving on. In this step we've recognized some of the ways that has impacted our life. Healing doesn't leave us, these gnats need to leave, that's what needs to leave. Healing doesn't leave us only looking backward, but at some point we are invited to look forward and we have to or else the depression and the darkness and despair are just gonna continue and pull us down and we're gonna end up farther than we've ever wanted to go and more scratched up and scarred. But now we're gonna look forward and ask, what is still possible? What can I do from here? Are trials and tribulations and trauma? Ooh, the three T's, okay. The three T's and stresses and pressures all of that. It provides a sp, are you coming to spray me? Oh, spray me in the face, thank you. It creates this opportunity. You know, we read in the word of God that Satan is an opportunist. The devil is just waiting, waiting for anything to happen so he can get up in there and like speak crazy stuff to us and speak lies over us and tell us that God isn't a good God because we're going through something and not just simply is not true, but another opportunity that these hardships provide or create

is it steals your power, it disempowers you. That's what fear does and we're walking through something difficult. We become fearful and rightfully so, we're human. But you learn how to use your faith instead of the fear. But the disempowering nature of hardship is telling you, it's giving you a bunch of cants and limitations. Have you ever been there? Yes. When Jesus says get up, we're gonna talk about rebuilding now. When Jesus says get up, we can hear this as a huge dramatic command when he tells the man to get up, but what if your get up isn't huge? What if it's something so small and simple? And I find that there's so much depth and sometimes more movement in something that's small and faithful over time. What if it's naming the appointment that you've been putting off? Telling somebody the truth, going back, we're just gonna let that pass. What if it's some telling somebody the truth or making an appointment that you've been putting off? What if it's going back to counseling or maybe it's forgiving somebody who has hurt you where there's resentment and anger and bitterness? Let them go, Princess Elsa, let it go. That's why I tell myself all the time. You got spiritual teflon, let it go, let it go.

Or maybe it's finally setting a boundary. Maybe it's resting, maybe it's asking for help or accepting that you cannot change somebody 'cause that is wisdom right there. Your get up doesn't have to look like everybody else's and it won't and small doesn't mean insignificant. And I know something about this in a very literal way. Let me give you a little story and then we'll go into this exercise. I've had 26 surgeries on my body in my lifetime. That's a lot, that's too much, that's too much. Sometimes I joke that I know a little something about healing and not medically, but what it takes to recover and rebuild and keep moving forward and discover what's possible, not just what was lost or different, but what is possible, what can I do now? I've spent a lot of time in physical therapy a lot and healing takes work, it takes patience, it takes rest, it takes doing exercises that you don't wanna do over and over and over again. It takes knowing when to push and also knowing when pushing is actually going to set you back and harm you. I've had doctors tell me you will never walk normally again and you'll probably definitely never run. Well, I respect their expertise. I need them to tell me the truth about where I am physiologically, but somewhere inside of me I'm also thinking,

thank you for your opinion. I have a good physician, a great physician that my leg is jacked up and there probably aren't some things that I shouldn't do because I could harm myself more and not because I believe faith means pretending limitations don't exist but I just don't want an assessment of where I am today to become the final word over what might be possible tomorrow. Amen? After my most recent surgery I had some complications and my leg was not acting right. It was not behaving and every time I took a step there was something that kept happening in the leg and it would give out and something would shift and it was so painful. It was so painful and I'm like they left some gauze or some scissors or something in my leg. Something's in there. I don't, y'all need to like x-ray it again. I'm not sure but I knew something wasn't right and I was scared. I was afraid that I might never be able to walk normally again, that I'll never be able to run again, that I won't be able to be in the gym again. I won't be able to hike again and all the things that I love doing and I kept asking my physical therapist for more help. I needed some more hands-on. Something's going on. The doctors keep telling me the surgery worked and it's just fine and I said well this doesn't look like that is the case but I wasn't getting what I needed. Eventually I found another physical therapist. He had a doctorate in physical therapy and he specialized in athletics and because of my athletic background I was so excited and I am afraid to work. I'm not afraid to work but he understood, he understood me and the fact that I don't have a kneecap in one of my legs. The fact that I have had 14 surgeries between these legs and all the trauma that both of my legs have been through, he understood all of it and it was on like Donkey Kong. Y'all remember that game? We wasted no time getting me up and moving and doing things that I didn't think I was prepared to do. Now in my mind I was ready to get back to doing all the things that I used to do and loved but my leg had a very different opinion and he'd say okay Sheridan I want you to do a single leg squat and I literally looked at the I looked at the man and laughed in his face like that is hilarious and I would say to him I can't do that and he would ask me to do a Bulgarian lunge same same response I can't do that my leg does not do that it does not bend that way and this went on for a couple of appointments until one day I started to realize something I drove away from my appointment and it was like the holy spirit was talking to me and showing me and I hear I heard that's not a word I heard my responses that I had been saying for the last several days I can't my leg doesn't I won't

and I had finally found someone who had understood what was happening in my leg and someone could who could help me rebuild but I was so afraid of the pain and so afraid of what my leg could not do that I wasn't even willing to explore what it could do with the possibilities are for my leg and I realized that I needed to change the way I responded I needed to change the way how I talked to myself and how it came out of my mouth the word of God says what comes out of our mouth is coming out of our heart and our insides and our thoughts and let's be honest the things that we're saying to ourselves and we believe we believe we become what we believe so we got to check what's going on up here now I suddenly didn't believe I could do everything he asked me to do and started running immediately nope not even close but I could change my response that is one thing I could do and that I did do and instead of saying I can't do that I said okay let's see how this is gonna go and it was like an adventure every time let's see if I can do three degrees today I can move it just three degrees today I can do just five pounds 'cause it hurt so bad. But he was there encouraging me, keep kept telling me, you can do this, your body's fine, the pain is okay. And I just wanted to see what happened. And so maybe I couldn't do a full squat, maybe I couldn't bend my knee to a full 90 degrees, but could I just bend a little, could I just start somewhere and be courageous? And that's what I started doing. And within two months, real story, within two months, and it was like a sports therapy place. So a whole bunch of athletes were there, college and high school. And I was destroying all the high school and the college athletes. And so we would have these, we would not tournaments, but we would have these competitions between each other and I would kill 'em.

And my physical therapist would come up to me and just say, do you have any idea how miraculous you are? And I said, I actually do, and my story's in a magazine and I'm gonna give you one, (laughs) I actually do. He said there, you should not be doing this stuff. And you should not be beating out 18 year olds in the things that you're doing. All glory goes to God for that. But you know what I told him? I said, thank you and I gave him a dozen donuts. That's what I did. And I just, he changed my life. He helped me change my perspective. But I want you to hear something. My leg didn't suddenly change because I changed my words. There were still complications and limitations and I still needed help and still had work to do. But I stopped allowing what I could not do and I stopped allowing what I couldn't do to keep me from discovering what I could do. So I wanna empower you in this exercise of getting up. This is about empowerment. This is about taking back what is yours. What can you do? What is still possible for you? So I'm gonna invite you to consider and write and fill in that space. There are some prompts on the paper. Maybe you just need to ask for help.

Tell the truth, pray. Maybe you haven't been praying for a long time. Just one little get up. But go ahead and write. We'll give you a couple minutes of silence. - Just because that we can do anything, right? We're taking back our control and what we are responsible for instead of handing it over to other people and waiting around for them to change before we can do anything else, right? That's sometimes what happens. Just because I can do something doesn't mean everything I could do is mine to do. And let me explain that. I had to learn that in physical therapy. Sometimes the next step was to strengthen or modify. Sometimes it was to stop and rest. I needed to recognize the difference and the same is true in our healing journeys. Before I move, before I make a move, I need to discern what is actually mine to do. And that's where our next tool comes in where it's step four. We're gonna notice what might need to change and we use the start, stop, surrender, receive framework. Faith in action doesn't always mean doing more. So it's on the back of your paper if you haven't turned it over. Faith in action doesn't always mean that we do more. Sometimes faith looks like stopping.

Sometimes it looks like starting or surrendering or just simply receiving. Romans 12-2 says, "Do not conform to the pattern "of this world, but be transformed "by the renewing of your mind. "Then you will be able to test and approve "what God's will is, his good and pleasing, perfect will. "Maybe stop means I need to stop rescuing other people." Yes, it is a good one right there. We need to stop putting on our captain cape. I think most of us have 'em and stop rescuing people. My momma had to do that with me. And not enabling me so that I could get the help that I needed. Sometimes it means we need to stop avoiding that difficult conversation or stop avoiding what is painful. Stop saying yes when I mean no. How many yes-ers are in here? We just be saying yes to everything 'cause we're the biggest people pleasers, right? You don't wanna disappoint nobody, and now we're crippled under the effects of everything that we're carrying and saying yes to, and we're not even caring for ourselves. Maybe start means that I need to start counseling. Like my sister said, start telling the truth. Start caring for our body or start showing up again. Start or stop neglecting you. Stop neglecting you because you matter. God cares so much about your life,

and He doesn't want us to neglect ourselves. Gaining the whole world, but losing all of ourselves in the process, but start showing up again for yourself. Maybe surrender means I need to surrender a person that I keep trying to change and outcome that I cannot control the time life, the timeline that I thought my life would follow. How many of y'all had plans for your life and they did not come to fruition? Maybe receive means I need to receive the help that I need and support from other people. Grace, I need to receive grace from God. I need to receive rest, give myself permission to rest, receive love for those of us who are so scared of intimacy and vulnerability. That's so scary. That's part of my healing, even my present healing journey, is learning to become more vulnerable and learning to be loved and fully loved as I am. Maybe it's receiving truth from somebody that I trust, as some of you are probably thinking shared and you could have used all that on the mountain, okay? Stop wandering around, start asking directions, surrender your pride and receive the dang water from the people. So out of those four, which one of those words stop, start, surrender or receive, get your attention? Which one gets your attention? Those four words help you to recognize what might need to change,

but just because something gets your attention doesn't automatically mean it's yours to do or yours to do right now. But I'm gonna give you about 30 seconds to just notice and sit with those four words and see which one is drawing you in. What might I need to stop, start, surrender or receive? And what might need to change? What does God moving me toward or inviting me toward? Those are the questions that are driving our answers into that place. Again, just because you are, something's getting your attention and it means it's your to do it may, it may not mean that it is time to do it, that's wisdom. And so there's a second discernment tool we're gonna use behind this in our step four of discernment. Is it mine, is it wise and is it time? I love this. Is it mine, is it wise and is it time? I use this discernment tool in my life to help me clarify, to help me order my steps with the Lord. Because if you're like me and something, you might be really passionate about something like I am and I get pretty energetic really fast and so I'll get all this energy and my nervous system will rise up and I'm like, "Let's go!"

It may not be time. It may just not be time to do that until you're more regulated. But let's run what you're sensing through these three questions. Is it mine, is it wise, is it time? They are practical and they are short and spiritually grounded. So is it mine means, is this actually mine to carry? Is it wise? Does this move me toward truth, health, safety and restoration? Is the language that I need to use when I say something to somebody? Is it going to be restorative language? Is it time? Is this my faithful step to take now or am I being asked to wait? Romans 12 says that we're transformed by the renewing of our minds. Disserment isn't just gut instinct. It's asking God to renew how we're even thinking about the situation before we act. Our mamas were right when they said you better think before you speak and act. That's a good word right there. Now, let me give you one example. If mine is my next step is to take is to have a difficult conversation. Is it mine? Well, perhaps, but I this perhaps this is a conversation that I need to have. Is it wise maybe, but not if I'm planning to approach it in anger, then it's that's not wise. Is it time? Perhaps not tonight when I'm exhausted and emotionally flooded. How many of y'all been there? Something just happened and your head is spinning like a bottle of glitter and water right when you shake it up. That's literally what happens in our brains when we become emotionally flooded and activated in our emotional part of our brain, our frontal cortex. The wise brain literally gets flooded. And so when we're feeling like things are spinning, we can't think clearly. That's what's happening. It is not a good time to talk about anything when we are in that space. And it's the way you get that glitter swirling around to resting calm down and sit down as if you want to put the bottle down. You literally got to sit down or I go outside and I put my feet in the grass and ground myself to get my nervous system and my brain to come down and mourn a calm regulated state so I can think clearly. Now go back to what stirred in you a moment and I want you to answer those three questions there underneath of my discernment tool. Is it mine? Is it wise? Is it time? Now maybe you're beginning to see what your next step could be and that's where our fifth step and our fifth checkpoint is where we're going. Maybe you're realizing something that you have been carrying actually isn't yours to carry and how it's impacting your life or maybe you're realizing that you need more time and that's okay. All of those are okay. But if there's something you sense that is yours to do, let's make it real. Let's go to step five, respond. Now remember my mountain? Well first let me respond for you. I don't know if you can see that. I can see here but respond is to move. I'll take the next faithful step, not every step, just the next one. On my mountain I didn't know the entire way down when I became lost and sat down. I just needed to know what the next step was. When I sat down I was so tired and my mind got calmed and I got cooled off a little bit. I saw the ranger's station and I'm like that's it. I got to get to that man right there. I needed help. But I want you to consider in this one question what is my next faithful step out of all that we've walked through, all the steps. Now I don't need, I don't want you to write down ten things. I don't want you to be overwhelming yourself. Because what we do as women, what do we do? We write it down and we're like I got to accomplish it. It's like a list. Don't do that. One, I want you to choose one, one. Not how you're going to change somebody else. Just one faithful step that is yours to take, write down whatever comes to mind. I'm going to give you a couple minutes. We have walked a long way inside of ourselves. I'm so proud of you.

Locating these things are hard. Digging up, digging up the soul, our internal soul. Is that how you say that? Y'all say full, like that, you know, aluminum full. little baby step underneath this step five, we're going to make it actionable, okay? And you are going to really clarify when, what, and who? Because this brings, this, this makes it real. What am I going to do? When am I going to do it, and who can help me? Now remember, someday is not a day of the week, so you cannot say someday. Take a couple of minutes and write those things down. All right, there's one more reword that I want to give you, and it's underneath your what when who, not as another step, but something that we do throughout the entire journey, we remain. We remain in Christ, we remain connected to Christ, to His Word, to His truth, we remain connected to healthy people who are encouraging us, who are speaking truth, even the hard stuff to us, we do that with grace and love, right? We don't go and be telling everybody about all their stuff. Remain when healing takes longer than you hoped. Remain when you're waiting, remain when today's faithful step is simply getting through today. Was it Lisa that was talking about that, she had enough hope that she got from the Lord for that day, enough grace for that day, so I found myself in that place, I've had enough peace for maybe an hour, and I had to go back and get some more from the well, because the window of tolerance was just so small, but I know where to go, praise God for that. There is no way I would have experienced the healing that I've experienced completely all by myself through my own will and my own effort. God meets us personally, and He also gives us people. We heal with other people. We heal in community. Healthy people creates a positive buffering against the negativity and the difficulty in the adversity of the world. I don't know if you've experienced that in your life, but I am a living walking testimony

of the power of people in my life who have been there for me supporting me and helping me and encouraging me even along the way of difficulty. We need people who can encourage us, support us when it gets hard and sometimes just lovingly remind us of the commitment that we've made, and we can't get mad at it. I have people in my life that I give permission, I will tell them, you have my permission to get all up in my business, because I need that. Otherwise I avoid and I push people out and when the enemy can get me alone up in here in my head, it ain't going to be good. I'm going to stay longer than I want to stay on that mat. You don't have to know the whole way forward. You just need to know the next faithful step. That's what I want you to get from today. It's the next faithful step and isn't that the journey of our life and recovery and healing and restoration that we're doing with the Lord. Today you have done a lot and thank you for participating. You reflected what has happened. You recognize some of the impact that it's had on your life. You've considered what you can do from here. You reoriented your thoughts through discernment and you've begun considering your next faithful step. Some of you may know what that next step is and some of you may still be listening. Some of you may have blank spaces on your paper and that is okay. I trust that Holy Spirit is going to meet you if you pull it out when you get home and get in your quiet place in your prayer closet and listen for the Lord's leading and His words for your life. You don't have to know the whole way forward and you don't have to fix everything today. You just need the next faithful step. Isaiah 61 tells us that God gives us beauty for ashes, hallelujah, the oil of joy instead of mourning and a garment of praise instead of spirit of despair. And then the passage goes on to describe people who rebuild ancient ruins and restore

That's the kind of God that we have who rebuilds, he restores, and he renews. Those aren't just words that are in the Bible or that I've collected over the years. They are truths to stand on, hopeful places to remain in and stay anchored in, standing firm in those faithful truths. And I love that God just doesn't pretend the ashes weren't real in that scripture. The devastation was real and the loss was real. What happened mattered, but the devastation doesn't have to be the end of the story or your story. We don't have to stay where we are and your story isn't over. Can we get a hand clap? Yeah, there is hope after whatever is in your blank and I want you to fill in that blank at the bottom of your paper. This is the last thing that you're gonna write. There is hope after and it's probably going to be the thing that you named in step one is probably gonna be right there. And I want you to declare that over your life today. Tape this to your mirror when you get home that you can say this out loud to yourself and so that the enemy can hear it too because he needs to back up and be reminded how big of a loser he is, amen? And he's gonna burn in the lake of hell forever and he needs to know that he needs to go.

You say kick rocks, you 86 out of this situation, get out. You may not know the whole journey or how long it'll take and you don't need to. You don't have to figure it all out. Just one faithful step at a time and knowing that you are not taking that step alone. The people that you have named, the person that you have named, that's your accountability partner. You are not alone and we know that Jesus is also our friend and the Holy Spirit is our accountability partner too. We talked about what is ours to do and the next faithful step, but our hope isn't in the ability to have everything figured out or make everything right today. Our hope is in the one who walks with us. And so before we move into a time of prayer, I just wanna worship together and I know we are out of time. We are right at the ending time, but I wanna play a song, "A Trust in God." I'll play this song over. No, I'll just be screaming it in my house. Singing it at the top of my lungs. I go into prison and I sing this over the men and we all sing it together. It's incredible, but trusting in God through the process until He comes out of the sky with perfection in hand. We are down here doing life, but we are not doing it alone, amen.

And we do not have to stay where we are. We do not have to allow the effects of what the enemy and the world has to offer to hold us and to harm us any longer. So if you're able and you wanna stand with me, let's worship together, trust in God. - Thank you for watching our broadcast. Are you an incarcerated brother or sister who needs encouragement? Write to us at Victoria's Living Correspondents, PO Box 2751 Greenville, North Carolina, 27836. To view Victoria's Living magazine in its entirety, please have your chaplain contact us at 352-478-2098. Or email us through our website at vlmag.org. We are happy to provide our Victoria's Living magazine free of charge in bulk with or without staples. (cheering)