Author Katherine Wolf on Overcoming Stroke: ‘God Withholds No Good Thing’
By Movieguide® Contributor
Author and public speaker Katherine Wolf says Jesus “sustained” her in her darkest moments.
In 2007, Wolf survived a catastrophic stroke caused by a congenital birth defect. She had given birth to son James just six months before.
“All the doctors on call were going to let me die in the waiting room, and a brave surgeon decided to try because he saw the baby and thought, ‘I’ve got to give this mother a chance,’ and took me into surgery. Sixteen hours later, I came out alive,” she said during an episode of Sadie Robertson Huff’s “WHOA That’s Good” podcast.
Wolf survived but faced a difficult road to recovery, having to relearn how to speak, eat and walk.
“It’s been a really difficult 16 years, and it’s also been an amazing 16 years,” she said. “Even in those nightmare situations, Jesus sustained me and carried me…we have a stunning capacity because of Jesus in our story to do incredibly hard things because he will supply every need. His divine power has given us everything that we need.”
Wolf said her mindset truly changed when she realized that “God withholds no good thing.”
“Nothing will ever be taken from me that actually matters,” she explained. “No matter what happens to my physical body — it’s not about the physical, it’s about the soul, and my soul is good.”
Wolf spreads this message of hope and overcoming adversity through her work with Hope Heals, an organization she began with husband Jay. Hope Heals reaches people through speaking events, books and the Hope Heals Camp for families affected by disability.
The couple also wrote a book titled “Hope Heals,” which encourages readers to “Find lasting hope in the midst of struggle, embrace the unexpected, [and] welcome God’s miracles into your everyday life.”
Wolf also shares encouraging messages to those living with disabilities on her Instagram account.
“If you’re living with disabilities or a chronic illness or the heavy load of grief, you might feel like too much and too little,” she reflected in a recent post. “Maybe you consider yourself a burden to the people you love. Maybe you’re believing a quiet, hateful voice that says you are not worthy of care.”
Wolf continued, “Friend, if you are on this earth with breath in your lungs, you are deeply worthy of receiving care. God has called you to this specific intersection of time and space. That means he sees you as worthy of taking up time and space.”
“When I start to feel ashamed of my neediness, God is faithful to remind me of some words from Jesus himself. ‘Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends.’ (John 15:13),” she concluded.
Movieguide® previously reported on a planned movie that will tell the couple’s story:
Katherine and Jay Wolf never thought they would suffer through a threatening stroke, much less find a movie director to take their inspiring story of hope to the big screen.
“A guy named Sean McNamara who did the Bethany Hamilton story SOUL SURFER, he’s attached to direct HOPE HEALS now,” Jay Wolf told Movieguide®.
In 2008, then 26 year-old Katherine suffered a stroke that required brain surgery. Through sickness and in health, God taught the Wolfs the value of hope.
“Dear friends of ours who had really known us the whole time, pre and after stroke, ended up being the ones who wrote the script in the screenplay,” said Jay.
The movie’s title will mirror the Wolf’s memoir title, HOPE HEALS. HOPE HEALS was acquired by Sony Pictures and McNamara signed on as director in early 2020 according to the Wolfs.
“We hold it really loosely but we do love and believe in the medium of film,” Jay added, “telling true stories and faith stories that are approachable to a broader audience, that would certainly be our hope.”
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