When I was twenty-nine, exactly one month after I got married, I had a carotid artery dissection. This is when a tear occurs in one of your carotid arteries, which can compromise blood flow to the brain and lead to a stroke.

Yes, this is extremely rare, especially at a young age. I had all the symptoms of a stroke, but praise God I did not actually have one. I had what is called a transient ischemic attack (TIA), which presented as numbness and tingling on one side of my body, loss of vision in one eye, and difficulty with speech—all of which resolved and didn’t cause long-term damage, thankfully.

Surprisingly, I was not afraid or worried during the actual event, or even while I was in the hospital. I felt blanketed by His peace and protection. At one point, I was so weak, I was barely able to walk to the bathroom while hooked up to my IV.

In that moment I saw a vision of Jesus holding me up and walking with me.

It was as though I could physically feel His tenderness, sympathy, and compassion carrying me.

Afterward, when I came home from the hospital, I began to feel fearful and worried a TIA would happen again, or even a stroke. I also worried about work and how I would perform, feeling the way that I did.

God saw my anxieties and fears and moved toward me in tenderness. As I came to Him in prayer, my anxieties and fears diminished. In continually going to God, the intensity, frequency, and duration of my worries and anxieties kept lessening.

The Lord met me in this experience with tenderness.

I discovered His compassion and care, both at the initial moment of crisis and in the days following when I felt fearful. He knew my physical weakness as well as my emotional and mental weakness. He was my Father, showing me compassion.

When I had imaging done again ten years later, my artery was completely healed, as if the dissection never happened. It “looked beautiful,” according to my doctor!

Can you think of a time when you saw the tenderness of Jesus carrying and sustaining you? I pray that as you recall this time, you would fall asleep tonight remembering that His tenderness remains.

In all of life’s experiences, He will continue to hold you up, friend. In your worries and fears, in your human frame, Christ holds you up.

My Lord,
How calming it is for my soul tonight to consider Your compassion,
to recall Your kindness and care.
Your tenderness has healed me time and time again.
I pray that my gratitude for Your lovingkindness will rise up to You like incense.
You are a compassionate God, One who displays sympathy, One who moves toward us in our need for You.
Your tenderness meets me in my vulnerability.
It holds me up in this season,
and I know it will continue to hold me up in every season for the remainder of my life.
Amen.

“As a father shows compassion to his children, so the Lord shows compassion to those who fear him. For he knows our frame; he remembers that we are dust” (Psalm 103:13–14). 

Taken from An Untroubled Heart by Kara Stout. Copyright Kara Stout© (April 2025) by Zondervan. Used by permission of Zondervan, www.zondervan.com.

For deeper reflection, listen to Psalm 103 today!

Please be Encouraged by Kara’s Painful & Healing Journey on the her Story Podcast!