Trusting God in Darkness

A Life Built on Doing Things Right

Shannon grew up in the Chicagoland area in a loving, supportive family and remembers her childhood fondly, though faith was more of a tradition than a personal understanding of the gospel. As she got older, she became driven by achievement and meeting expectations, quietly motivated by a desire to please others. “I didn’t want to disappoint anyone,” she says. This mindset shaped her identity and, as she now recognizes, was quietly exhausting.

Discovering That God Is Personal

Shannon’s understanding of faith began to change during medical school. That’s when she met Paul. From the beginning, Shannon noticed something different about him and his family. Faith wasn’t something they practiced occasionally—it shaped the way they lived their daily lives.

Early in their relationship Paul invited Shannon to attend church with him. “I remember walking out of that service thinking, That was the best service ever,” Shannon says. For the first time, she heard clearly that God desires a personal relationship with His people. “I had always felt like God was… over there,” she explains. “I didn’t realize I could actually approach Him.”

Her faith didn’t transform overnight, but something began to shift. Paul’s family helped guide her along the way—opening the Bible with her, answering questions, and modeling what it looked like to follow Christ in everyday life. “They really discipled me,” Shannon says. Slowly, faith moved from tradition to relationship.

Paul’s Perspective

While Shannon was discovering what it meant to follow Jesus personally, Paul was watching that transformation unfold. “From the beginning, I saw how genuinely Shannon wanted to know God,” Paul says. “She asked thoughtful questions and really wanted to understand what the Bible said and what it meant for her life. Watching that grow in her was really special for me. It became something we shared, and it laid a foundation for our marriage that carried us through a lot of the hard things that came later.”

Together they began building their life on that shared foundation of faith—learning, growing, and trusting God one step at a time. What neither of them knew at the time was that their faith would one day be tested in ways they never expected.

When Everything Was Tested

Years later, Paul had joined the Navy and was deployed to Afghanistan. Shannon was home with their children, carrying the quiet tension that comes with having a spouse in a dangerous place. She prayed often during those months, but anxiety was never far away.

Then one morning her daughter Abby woke up sick. At first it seemed like a typical childhood illness but when Shannon went to lift Abby from her crib, something was clearly wrong. “She wouldn’t stand,” Shannon remembers. Shannon’s medical training immediately told her something was not right. She rushed Abby to the emergency room but Abby’s symptoms were dismissed as typical toddler behavior, and Shannon began to question her own instincts. Was she overreacting? Was her anxiety clouding her judgment?

A friend from church who had come to sit with her noticed Abby’s symptoms and urged Shannon to advocate more firmly. Looking back, Shannon sees God’s hand even in that moment. “I truly believe God put her there for that exact reason.” Eventually, Abby was transferred to Lurie Children’s Hospital in Chicago.

The Moment Everything Changed

By the time they arrived, her condition had worsened significantly. While preparing for testing, Abby’s heart stopped. Doctors immediately began performing CPR. Shannon stood nearby watching the crisis unfold while Paul experienced the moment from thousands of miles away. Shannon had called him as the emergency was unfolding, and he listened as doctors worked desperately to save their daughter’s life.

But there was nothing he could do to help. No way to reach his family. No way to change what was happening. All Paul could do was pray and trust God with the life of his daughter—and begin the long and uncertain journey of trying to get home. “I couldn’t get there fast enough. All I could do was pray and trust that God was already in that room with Abby.”

Trying to steady herself as the crisis unfolded, a chaplain asked Shannon to recite the Scripture tattooed on her foot. The words that once came easily felt out of reach. But in that moment, she experienced something she still struggles to describe: “I felt this overwhelming peace,” Shannon says. “It was like God’s presence was right there.” It didn’t mean she knew Abby would survive, but somehow, in the middle of the chaos, she knew she was not alone.

A Miracle No One Could Explain

Doctors eventually discovered that a virus had attacked Abby’s heart, leaving it severely weakened and functioning at just 26 percent. Doctors prepared Shannon for the possibility that Abby might need a heart transplant if her condition didn’t improve. Friends and family began praying. Prayer requests spread quickly. People from across the country—and even around the world—joined in asking God to heal Abby. Within 72 hours, Abby’s heart began to recover. By Monday, her heart function had more than doubled. Doctors were stunned. One ICU physician stopped by Shannon’s room and admitted to her, “I don’t really know how to explain what happened in here. This is miraculous.”

A Miracle Reaching Far Beyond One Family

For Shannon, Abby’s recovery was only part of the miracle. The other part was watching what God did in the lives of people around them. Friends who had been skeptical about faith began asking questions. Prayer had drawn people together in ways Shannon never expected. And God used that moment to reveal Himself to many. “It wasn’t just about Abby,” Shannon says. “God was drawing people to Himself.”

The Long Road Home

After days of navigating the challenges of military travel, Paul finally walked into Abby’s hospital room. For the first time since the crisis began, Shannon and Paul were standing side by side beside their daughter. The immediate danger had passed, but her recovery was far from over. She remained in the hospital for nearly a month as doctors carefully monitored her heart and helped her regain strength.

Those weeks brought slow progress, small victories, and many long days and nights. There were moments of deep gratitude as they watched Abby continue to heal, and moments of uncertainty as Shannon and Paul waited to see how fully she would recover.

Learning to Trust

Looking back, Shannon now sees that the miracle wasn’t only the moment Abby’s heart began to recover, but the steady, faithful way God walked with their family through the long road of healing that followed. “I think God was teaching me to trust Him,” she says. Trust that He is present. Trust that He is good. Trust that He is working—even when we cannot see the outcome.”

Trust, she has learned, isn’t something we master in a single moment. It grows slowly, shaped through the moments when we see God carry us through what we never imagined we would face. And maybe that’s where Shannon’s story meets ours. In the uncertain moments when control slips through our hands. In the quiet invitation to trust that God is still near, still working, and still writing a story we cannot yet fully see.