When Life Changes

God Grows You with Rachael Lampa

Christian artist and mom Rachael Lampa shared a piece of that story with us, and her words carry the kind of honesty that makes room for your own.

God has a way of widening your world through a turn you never saw coming. One day you’re holding a picture of what you thought life would look like. The next day, the frame shifts. And right there, Jesus meets you in the real life you’re living and shows you what He’s been building all along.

“When I found out that my kid was going to have Down syndrome, it freaked me out,” Rachael said. “I had a deep moment of grieving and mourning and there was a loss of a kind. And I stayed in that for longer than I wanted to. I felt guilty. I felt embarrassed that I felt sad.”

Have unexpected emotions have surprised you? Rachael says she’s learning to let it be what it was. She doesn’t rush past the grief, and she doesn’t dress it up.

That matters, because God meets you with tenderness in the places you feel the most exposed. “The Lord is close to the brokenhearted” (Psalm 34:18 NIV). Close means present. Close means He’s near enough to hold what feels too heavy.

Rachael’s days are full. “I have an 8-year-old and a 2-year-old,” she said. And she talked about how motherhood has a way of revealing what’s already inside you.

“My 8-year-old just like exploded my life… being my first kid and just being this new little buddy in my life,” Rachael shared, “holding up this mirror to me basically… and just showing me… who I really am.”

She described what she’s seen in that mirror with the kind of words so many of us recognize. “Because I have dealt with fear. I’ve dealt with anxiety. Especially having kids, it’s like this whole new world of possibilities of things that can be scary.”

When fear gets loud, come back to what’s right in front of you.

Rachael gave language to how fear works—how it tries to keep your mind spinning in a thousand directions. “Fear just kind of dangles… itself in front of your face,” she said. And then she shared the practice she’s learning to return to, again and again: “[My kids] have really taught me just throughout the ride… as often as possible look right in front of you— ‘look straight into their eyes. Look into heaven and say, ‘I choose faith… I choose hope,’ cuz fear just kind of dangles itself in front of your face and you’re just like, ‘Okay, okay!’ This is another chance to draw closer… to get to the point of life… which is to draw close to the heart of God.”

When fear starts stacking up possibilities, Jesus invites you back into the moment you’re actually standing in. He meets you in the next faithful step. He provides confidence in the ordinary. He stays close in the parts of your day you didn’t plan.

Rachael continues, “Through motherhood, I’ve been able to find this new piece of God’s heart that I didn’t know before.”

Sometimes change opens up a new way of knowing God. The Holy Spirit keeps bringing you back to the heart of Jesus, and you start to recognize His presence in places you used to miss.

The “loss” became a doorway into restoration.

“I think my experience with restoration and having Leo was that… I thought I was having a loss, but actually… something in me was dying that needed to die,” she said.

She described the pressure so many of us feel when life doesn’t match the picture we expected. She named what needed to die: “My idea of perfection.” And in place of that old picture, God began to grow something new.

“By having this… death of… my idea of perfection, I’ve been shown this whole new world of restoration,” Rachael said, “of… a fuller heart than I’ve ever had before.”

Rachael described what God has been growing in her—vision, compassion, capacity.

“I thought life was going to look like this, but God was like, ‘Actually, watch this,’” she said. “And my life is so much bigger. My eyes are bigger. My hands… are bigger. My heart has gotten bigger. Like, I just feel like I can hold so much more and I can see so much more.”

That bigger heart has changed how she sees people. “I see… people that are… struggling, that are disabled, that are… misunderstood. I see them better. I see them clearer,” she said. “I see the… superpower in them that I missed my whole life until I knew Leo… my 2-year-old.”

Find God in the small places you used to rush past.

Rachael said this season has also changed her pace. “I’ve been zooming in a little bit more on life and enjoying little things again,” she shared. “Enjoying like the slowness of… making breakfast in the morning… being on the go all the time.”

She offered a sentence that feels like an invitation for your next ordinary moment:

“I think God is… hiding in those little… those places where… we speed past,” Rachael said. “And so I’m just trying to find those little moments again.”

And that’s a beautiful next step for you, too. Will you take one ordinary moment today to slow down on purpose and invite Jesus into it?

Rachael’s words carry something steady: fear can dangle possibilities in front of your face, and Jesus keeps inviting you back to what’s right in front of you.

If you want to hear more of Rachael’s conversation and the fuller context behind these moments, join us for “How Change Grows Us,” Episode 5 of LIFE in Session<.