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What do you do when the bottom drops out and life breaks in ways you never imagined? Charlie and Jill LeBlanc have walked that road, and through their personal story of loss, they’ve discovered the sustaining power of God's presence. In this podcast, they offer heartfelt conversations, Scripture-based encouragement, and the kind of hope that only comes from experience. Whether you're grieving, struggling, or searching for peace in the middle of chaos, this space is for you.
Hi, friends. Welcome back. We're looking forward to sharing some things with you today that the Lord has put on our hearts recently.
Charlie LeBlanc:Yeah. Welcome to the Finding Hope broadcast, getting through what you never asked for. And those have been the themes that we've been covering through all of these episodes, just getting through tough stuff. Because as you know, we went through tough stuff, and the Scripture tells us in 2 Corinthians, the first chapter, the third and fourth verse, it says to comfort others with the same comfort that you receive from the Lord. That's the mandate that God gave us.
Charlie LeBlanc:That's what we're trying to do today is help you, relate to you. And also the scripture says in Proverbs to speak up for those who cannot speak for themselves.
Jill LeBlanc:Right.
Charlie LeBlanc:So hopefully just by affirming to you what you've been through, that we somehow understand to a degree what maybe you're going through. Our hope is to encourage you. Our hope is to give you hope. And our desire is to minister grace to you.
Jill LeBlanc:I wanna share a little Scripture that I just found recently right before we started talking.
Charlie LeBlanc:Okay. Cool.
Jill LeBlanc:And it was it's in 1 Thessalonians chapter five. I'm reading out of the Passion translation, which is really cool. I know that not all of Bible scholars think it's accurate, but it's so good.
Charlie LeBlanc:I tell you, it's so foolish that they don't
Jill LeBlanc:I know.
Charlie LeBlanc:I mean, they what they put on The Message, they put on the Amplified, Living Bible and the New Living Bible, the Amplified, and they think, oh, the Passion is not, you know, act. It's definitely- It's a powerful translation.
Jill LeBlanc:The guy who put it together, he searches the Scriptures and and the Hebrew and the Aramaic and all of it.
Charlie LeBlanc:Yeah.
Jill LeBlanc:So it's a wonderful translation. I personally like other translations because I just don't want to get too used to the way I always heard something, because sometimes when you get too used to it, you don't really absorb it anymore. So it's nice to branch out into other translations just to get a fresh look.
Charlie LeBlanc:Yeah, as a matter of fact, in our journey of loss and going through the difficult transition of trying to recover from the loss of our son Beau, it was other translations that really came alive to us, including a bruised reed and including Lamentations three, which we might mention on this broadcast. But there's been so many scriptures that we had read before but didn't understand, or they didn't really mean a lot to us. But once we broke it down into the TPT, or the New Living, or the Amplified even, they came alive. Of course, now we look at the message as well, which has been around for ages, and we're pretty amazed at some of the things, the way it says it.
Jill LeBlanc:Yeah.
Charlie LeBlanc:So it's all good.
Jill LeBlanc:So you mentioned about the Scripture in 2 Corinthians 1:4
Charlie LeBlanc:Right. Right.
Jill LeBlanc:About how we're to comfort others
Charlie LeBlanc:Right.
Jill LeBlanc:With the same comfort that we've been comforted with.
Charlie LeBlanc:Right.
Jill LeBlanc:And that's so important to to just just be aware of things that other people are walking through and be sensitive in your heart to the voice of the spirit, just becoming a a a better comforter to them.
Charlie LeBlanc:Yeah.
Jill LeBlanc:Because there's so many people that are, that don't bring comfort at all, sadly, because they're just trying to encourage them. And sometimes we don't need encouragement when we're walking through things. We we just need comfort and love. So but I was reading this in 1 Thessalonians 5 in verse 14 in the Passion translation. It says we
Charlie LeBlanc:That translation? Sorry.
Jill LeBlanc:The Passion. That Passion Translation. TPT. We appeal to you, dear brothers and sisters, to instruct those who are not in their place of battle. Now that spoke to me because when you are going, when you have experienced a tragic loss or something really a major incident in your life, you might not be in your place of battle because maybe you've been knocked off your horse.
Charlie LeBlanc:Very interesting.
Jill LeBlanc:And damaged, you know. And so it says, instruct those who are not in their place of battle. Be skilled at gently encouraging those who feel themselves inadequate. And I remember early on in our grief journey, we felt so inadequate to ever be used in ministry again.
Charlie LeBlanc:Right.
Jill LeBlanc:In any capacity by the Lord, we just thought, you know, we had the battle of our lives in front of us and lost it. You know, we lost that battle. And so we talk about feeling completely inadequate. We did. And the Bible says here, Be skilled at gently encouraging those who feel themselves inadequate. And that's what we needed. And be faithful to stand your ground. Help the weak to stand again.
Charlie LeBlanc:Is that what it says?
Jill LeBlanc:Yes, right here in The Passion Translation.
Charlie LeBlanc:Beautiful.
Jill LeBlanc:Be quick to demonstrate patience with everyone. That's powerful.
Charlie LeBlanc:Wow. There's a lot there. We could unpack all of that.
Jill LeBlanc:So much there.
Charlie LeBlanc:Yeah.
Jill LeBlanc:And it just goes right along with comforting others with the same comfort that we have received from the Lord.
Charlie LeBlanc:Right.
Jill LeBlanc:And maybe you haven't experienced a tragic loss, but you've observed other people that have, and you're compassionate towards that. And here is some beautiful guidelines of how you are to be towards hurting people. Isn't that great?
Charlie LeBlanc:I love that. Wow. That's really good. And that part that says, you know, what does it say about battle? Says
Jill LeBlanc:Be skilled at let's see. Oh, in the beginning it says, We appeal to you, brothers and sisters, to instruct those who are not in
Charlie LeBlanc:In their place of then it talks about later, you know, to help them in that battle. And I think for us as well that, you know, it's like they talk about being knocked off your hearse.
Jill LeBlanc:Right.
Charlie LeBlanc:And you're in battle with a horse back in those days and you're knocked off. And anyway, you know, as many of you know, and I'm sure many of you have experienced, we felt that we were just knocked off our horse. I mean, didn't
Jill LeBlanc:Absolutely.
Charlie LeBlanc:We weren't, battling wasn't, I mean, we were in the midst of the battle of our life, but we weren't battling because we were just trying to survive.
Jill LeBlanc:Not afterlife, right.
Charlie LeBlanc:It's like if someone gets knocked off their horse, they get thrown into, let's say, a river or whatever it is, they're just struggling to swim, to survive, to get to the side of the river so they can hold onto a branch. I just sorry, my heart just went out to the people in Texas again that went through that horrible flood. It was just our hearts just break. For them that we're trying to survive by holding on to branches. Oh, God, help us.
Charlie LeBlanc:Help us, Lord, and help us pray. We pray for all of those dear people, God, all the families, Lord, that are devastated by the loss of their little one's, Father, all And the family the parents. Parents. Siblings. All of them. Coaches. Just pray, God, for your comfort, your help. Lord, we know this is maybe out of the news now, Lord, but we know it's not out of your heart and it's not out of the family's minds and the community's mind, Father. And so we pray, Lord God, for your comfort and your help to all of those, God, who are experiencing loss in that community. In the name of Jesus.
Charlie LeBlanc:I hate to get off track here, but you we were texting with a friend that lives in that area.
Jill LeBlanc:Yeah. She lives right there.
Charlie LeBlanc:Yeah.
Jill LeBlanc:And and thankfully, her home is fine, her area. And she was actually out of town when it happened. But she said that town of 28,000 people, everyone knows someone who perished.
Charlie LeBlanc:Yeah.
Jill LeBlanc:And so tragic. And and I'm thinking back a year ago
Charlie LeBlanc:She said there's a lot of grief over there.
Jill LeBlanc:Oh, she said it's riveted with grief. Yeah. I was thinking also back to a year ago, almost a year ago, when the devastation happened in North Carolina and that whole region. You know, they it
Charlie LeBlanc:Oh, yeah.
Jill LeBlanc:It does they don't just bounce back from that. No. And neither will these people in the hills country of Texas. Their lives are changed forever. And, you know, we just need to, number one, pray how we can be a part of their recovery somehow.
Jill LeBlanc:Yes. You know, I mean, all of us pray.
Charlie LeBlanc:Yeah. What practical things we can do, and yet if we can't do a whole lot, you know, because we're further away from them, we can financially give to these disasters and we can also pray. And I think prayer is very, very powerful in these situations. And we need to at least be praying.
Jill LeBlanc:Praying, right. And praying also how we can become a better helper.
Charlie LeBlanc:Yeah.
Jill LeBlanc:Not only praying that the Lord, you know, that they were able to sense the Lord undergirding them, but what can we do in addition to praying?
Charlie LeBlanc:And you know, it's a good lesson for us here too to remember that when these catastrophes and sad things happen, they last a long time in the hearts of these people. Now, you know, the news is so, you know, like, okay, this is a big deal, and sure, they're compassionate and they show it for about a week, two weeks, give you updates on how many people were missing in the tragedy and how many have died, whatever the situation might be. But within a week or two, it's gone.
Jill LeBlanc:A couple weeks.
Charlie LeBlanc:They're into the latest news. But all these major tragedies, even the plane crash in New York, that one that-
Jill LeBlanc:DC.
Charlie LeBlanc:DC hitting the helicopter. I mean, going back to the Sandy Hook murders of the little bitty children, five and six years old, it just goes on and on. We see tragedy all the time in the news, and I wanna encourage you, as I'm speaking this to myself as well, we know this pain doesn't go away for the families, for the community, for those involved. It never ends, to be The pain of the loss of your children, of your family members, especially in that type of a situation, never ends. So we just, I don't know, the Holy Spirit just drew me into that when I started thinking about it.
Charlie LeBlanc:But back to my thought is that we all, There are times in our lives when we get knocked off our horse and we're knocked out of the battle situation, according to that scripture, based on my experience, the Lord doesn't condemn us when we're out of the battle scene, when we're in the survival mode versus the battle mode. Now, I know that we always need to be fighting back because the enemy is out to steal, kill, and to destroy. And, you know, Jesus said to Peter, Satan has desired to sift you as wheat, but I pray that your faith fail not. Well, you know, yes, we need to have faith and hope in the midst of tragedy, but let's be real about it. When it happens, something like this, the loss of a son after a nine year battle, the loss of these devastations a nine month battle, sorry.
Charlie LeBlanc:You know, you are broken. You are knocked off your horse. You're not in battle. You're in survival mode.
Jill LeBlanc:That's what happens.
Charlie LeBlanc:And really survival mode is okay.
Jill LeBlanc:Yes.
Charlie LeBlanc:Because you want to give up in the fight of the pain that's inside of you, of the hope that's been destroyed inside of you. You want to give up, but you can't.
Jill LeBlanc:Right.
Charlie LeBlanc:I mean, you can, but the survival instinct is still there to hang on but you want to guard your heart, but you don't know how to.
Jill LeBlanc:Yeah.
Charlie LeBlanc:Oh, so many, so many things.
Jill LeBlanc:Well, I have another scripture.
Charlie LeBlanc:Go for it. This Bible instrument today.
Jill LeBlanc:No. I mean, thank God for the Holy Spirit. He comes to our aid.
Charlie LeBlanc:Praise the Lord.
Jill LeBlanc:Romans 8eight in The Passion Translation in verse 26. Listen to this. It says, and in a similar way, the Holy Spirit takes hold of us in our human frailty to empower us in our weakness. That's exactly what we experienced, isn't it? We were we were so broken. We were so weak and so frail. And like we said earlier, we didn't think we would ever survive or be usable by the Lord again.
Charlie LeBlanc:Right.
Jill LeBlanc:But He took hold of us in our human frailty
Charlie LeBlanc:Wow.
Jill LeBlanc:And empowered us in our weakness. And then it goes on to say, for example, at times we don't even know how to pray or know the best things to ask for. But the Holy Spirit rises up within us to super intercede on our behalf, pleading to God with emotional sighs too deep for words.
Charlie LeBlanc:That is so powerful.
Jill LeBlanc:I know.
Charlie LeBlanc:You know, when you read that part that said well, you said that that it was we don't even know how to pray or know the best things to ask for. I tell you, we that touched me deeply when you read that because that's kind of where we were at. I mean, we were like, I didn't know what to pray except for help. I didn't And I guess you were angry, so you didn't wanna pray. You turned you just turned your back on God, in a sense, but I've never put it that way before, but in a sense, you hardened your heart.
Charlie LeBlanc:You just said, No, this isn't right. I ain't gonna talk to this in this situation. Which, You know, we share these things. We're transparent with you because we're sixteen years out and God has really helped us and brought us to a really, really But good we share with you, We don't like to just sit here and say, Well, praise God, God got us through. We don't want to do all that stuff because when you've been hit, we want you to understand that we understand to a degree.
Charlie LeBlanc:I know every loss is different and we don't claim to understand everything that's going on in your heart and the pain that you're experiencing, but we experienced enough pain to be able to say, we we somewhat understand. And you don't have to be perfect in these situations. You can be broken and let god help you. You can be broken and let God pull you through, let God carry you through these situations. Like you said, Joe, we didn't know what to pray, but the Holy Spirit.
Charlie LeBlanc:And that's the thing we had to rely upon. It's like even in our tears, and in our lamenting, and in our complaining in our hearts, I believe the Holy Spirit was there just interceding for us and praying through us. And the scripture tells us that Jesus ever liveth to intercede for us.
Charlie LeBlanc:So Jesus loves us so much that even when we, in a sense, turn our back, harden our hearts, turn away, he keeps running after us.
Jill LeBlanc:Yeah, he does.
Charlie LeBlanc:And and I'm reminded of and I know I could keep preaching, I apologize, but I'm reminded of, I was reading in Genesis again this week about Adam and Eve, we talked a little bit about it, but they hid from God. They messed up and they hid from Him, but the Lord pursued them. And then when he finally found them, he covered them with animal skin and so forth. But the Lord is faithful to continue to pursue us in the deepest darkness that we're in.
Jill LeBlanc:Is it Psalm 103 or 107 that says, the Lord is compassionate and gracious and slow to anger
Charlie LeBlanc:Yep.
Jill LeBlanc:And abounding in love. That's how he is. And and it also says he remembers that we are but dust.
Charlie LeBlanc:Yes.
Jill LeBlanc:So he he is compassionate towards us. He's not there I mean, he wants us to come along, but he he wasn't there with us just just waiting and and hoping, you know, and and rebuking or, you know, trying to discipline us to get it together or any of that. He is so compassionate towards people. And just like it says here, but the Holy Spirit rises up within us to super intercede on our behalf like you just mentioned.
Charlie LeBlanc:Wow.
Jill LeBlanc:Pleading to God with emotional sighs too deep for words. Wow. That's the Holy Spirit.
Charlie LeBlanc:Pleading to God with emotional sighs too deep for words. Yeah. It's so true. I mean, I love that. That's beautiful because it so depicts what we went through.
Jill LeBlanc:Yeah.
Charlie LeBlanc:And the deep pain that we were in and how, again, we're not trying to just talk about us, but we're trying to relate to you, to give you, in a sense, permission, and that we understand how these things go, and that you don't have to condemn yourself, as Jill said. You don't have to feel like you have to be perfect. God will see you through, even in the midst of your deepest, agony, he will help you and pull you through these deep, dark tunnels.
Jill LeBlanc:Yeah.
Charlie LeBlanc:And this stuff doesn't always completely stop.
Jill LeBlanc:Right.
Charlie LeBlanc:You know, we've gone in and out through the years. We felt we were so much better, and then we'll have a difficult day or a difficult week. And you even shared how that, you know, you went to this big conference and you were like, I'm overgrieved. I'm
Jill LeBlanc:Yeah. It was I don't think I shared it on here, but it was the first birthday of Beau's after he passed away. And so he would have been 24 that year. And I was the the church where our daughter, Cammy, was helping with worship, they were having a big women's conference. And so I went down to be with her at that women's conference.
Jill LeBlanc:And it was so interesting because that whole weekend, I felt like I was-
Charlie LeBlanc:In a bubble.
Jill LeBlanc:I was. I was in a bubble-
Charlie LeBlanc:Mhmm.
Jill LeBlanc:Of peace and joy and and freedom. And I felt like, oh my gosh. I'm through the grief journey. And it was just, what, four months. Let's see. Yeah. Four months after he died. And because, you know, everyone says you get through the grief journey, you know, and we were just so new into it. And I just was it was awesome.
Charlie LeBlanc:Right.
Jill LeBlanc:People people that knew our story from knowing Cammy and would see me there, I was just rejoicing in the worship times, it was so awesome. And it was great. It felt so good.
Jill LeBlanc:And Cammy was looking like at me with just amazement that although she was still hurting, she was really happy for me. And, you know, because we always would look out for each other.
Charlie LeBlanc:Right.
Jill LeBlanc:But the next week, after I was back with Charlie or maybe you maybe you came to Florida, we were still living living in Saint Louis at that time. I don't remember, but whenever we were back together, I mean, everything caved.
Charlie LeBlanc:It hit. Yeah.
Jill LeBlanc:Oh my gosh. All the grief that I would have endured through that weekend came crashing down. And I felt hopeless.
Charlie LeBlanc:Yeah.
Jill LeBlanc:I once again and I had come along, you know, it it had been four months. And the Lord had, you know, walked, carried me, and walked me along in that journey to a a better place than I was in the beginning. But it wasn't completely over. But but still, you know, that one weekend was amazing.
Charlie LeBlanc:Mhmm.
Jill LeBlanc:But after that, when it all came crashing down again, I felt so hopeless.
Charlie LeBlanc:Yeah.
Jill LeBlanc:I was kinda back to square one, Maybe even worse because I thought, yeah, well, so much for this. Yeah.
Charlie LeBlanc:Yeah, a lack of hope and, you know, it's something that's very common in loss. We had a dear friend of ours who lost her husband, and she expressed that to us. She said, You know, one of the hardest things is just having hope for my future. And we know Jeremiah 29:11 says that He's given us hope for our future. But again, it's finding that hope.
Jill LeBlanc:Yes.
Charlie LeBlanc:You know, in the midst of these dark, dark times. And you know, the Scripture says, I would have despaired unless I had believed that I would see the goodness of God in the land of living. And that's so true that you do despair if you don't completely see your future and see a way out of the mess that you're in. Hopelessness is a real issue that we all deal with at different times. I was reading through my journal, I think I mentioned it to you, it was just a few years ago that we were entering into this new ministry that we're doing now, and I just all hope was lost in my heart.
Charlie LeBlanc:I couldn't see the end from the beginning. I couldn't figure out where I was going to go, how we were going to get to the other side of this. Everything that I was starting to begin to dream about just crashed in. It came crashing in. And I felt super hopeless.
Charlie LeBlanc:And I remember coming home from church and praying, and I even voice text my prayers because I was so hopeless. And I prayed, I said, God, I'm trusting you. I said, I believe that in a year from now, I'm going to look back at this and see that you restored my hope and restored my vision and restored my health. But I just say all that to and he did, by the way. But I just say all that to say that, you know, the battle of hope is a big battle.
Jill LeBlanc:It is.
Charlie LeBlanc:And we know that God is faithful, so we have to trust that even when we're totally weak, as scripture said, when we're weak, then we're strong, but even when we're just broken, even if you don't realize it, I'm just telling you, the faithfulness of God, the Holy Spirit is working in your heart, praying through you, and he is healing, working on the mending of your soul. The mending of your soul, which is so needed because, yeah, our spirit rejoices all the time, our spirit's complete in Christ, but our soul gets distraught. Our soul gets beat up. And I'm telling you, it's a real thing.
Charlie LeBlanc:And you know that, but we're trying to affirm you to say don't feel condemned, don't feel like something wrong with you or that you're less than if you have these feelings. We had them and we know they're normal. We see them amongst great men of God in scripture as well. Paul the Apostle's a perfect example. David's a perfect example.
Charlie LeBlanc:So many felt hopeless and distraught, but God was faithful to bring them through. It was a process, and yes, Jill and I are in a much better place now, but we remember, and we know. And let me just read one last scripture that we read quite often. It's in Lamentations three, and, well, let me just read it in here. It's one of our favorite scriptures, again, in the New Living Translation, Lamentations 3:18.
Charlie LeBlanc:He says, I cry out, my splendor is gone. Everything I hoped for from the Lord is lost. Man, that's a clear depiction. The thought of my suffering and homelessness is bitter beyond word. Bitter, bitter beyond words.
Charlie LeBlanc:And I know some of you have lost children, lost loved ones in an untimely manner, and I know your heart can be tempted to get bitter, and we understand that. But then he goes on to say in verse 20, I will never forget this awful time as I grieve over my loss. I just love that. It's so sweet and so pure, so transparent. I'll never forget this awful time as I grieve over my loss.
Charlie LeBlanc:It's just reality. You'll never forget the difficult time that you've been through, but he goes on to say, Yet, I still dare to hope, when I remember this, that the faithful love of the Lord never ends, his mercy never ceases, great is his faithfulness, his mercies begin every morning. So thank God for his faithfulness. Thank God for his love.
Jill LeBlanc:We're so grateful. We would not be here today if it wasn't for his faithfulness in our Absolutely.
Charlie LeBlanc:We would not be here today if it wasn't for his him carrying us, him coming in, the Holy Spirit praying for us, through us, Jesus interceding for us. So anyway.
Jill LeBlanc:We've got so many great things to continue sharing. So we hope you can come on, for next week's episode as well because we're just gonna keep going on this same theme. But just know that he is faithful to you. And we are praying for you along with the Holy Spirit who is super interceding for you. And you are going to make it.
Jill LeBlanc:You will find hope and you will find a deeper sense of God's faithfulness in your life than you've ever known. Thank you, Lord.
Charlie LeBlanc:Well, God bless all of you, and we'll look forward to seeing you on the next episode. Bye bye now.