Even If You Were Told: Surviving the Unimaginable with God

By Nikki Thompson

God allowed three major disasters to alter the course of author Nikki Thompson’s life. They were, without a doubt, the most difficult, saddest, humiliating, horrible, and embarrassing times in her life. She lived a good portion of six months in a rolling fog. In Even If You Were Told, she shares her story about the three, major life-altering events that she experienced.

Thompson faced the unthinkable—a destructive tornado, cardiac/medical issues, and a divorce—with no choice but to walk through six months of brutal torment that completely shattered the life she loved. Instead of going it alone, she chose to lace up her boots and walk through the fire with God by her side.

In this testimony, she tells how the outcome was nothing short of miraculous. If you had warned her of these events, she would have never believed you, much less predicted how they would unfold. But this is a story of survival and of defeating darkness through hope, of overcoming life when it doesn’t play fair—all by the grace and love of God.

• Language: English
• Publisher: WestBow Press
• Release date: Jan 22, 2023
• ISBN: 9781664288300

Nikki Thompson

Nikki Thompson was born and raised in the heart of southern charm in Huntsville, Alabama, where she still lives and raises her kids. She is also the director of Early Intervention services at a program serving families who have young kids with disabilities and/or delays. Thompson began writing in 2018 after a calling from God to share how passionate she is for Jesus and the way he has moved mountains in her life.

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Copyright © 2023 Nikki Thompson.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced by any means, graphic, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, taping or by any information storage retrieval system without the written permission of the author except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

This book is a work of non-fiction. Unless otherwise noted, the author and the publisher make no explicit guarantees as to the accuracy of the information contained in this book and in some cases, names of people and places have been altered to protect their privacy.

WestBow Press

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Because of the dynamic nature of the Internet, any web addresses or links contained in this book may have changed since publication and may no longer be valid. The views expressed in this work are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher, and the publisher hereby disclaims any responsibility for them.

Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Getty Images are models, and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.

Certain stock imagery © Getty Images.

Scripture quotations taken from The Holy Bible, New International Version® NIV® Copyright © 1973 1978 1984 2011 by Biblica, Inc. TM. Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.

ISBN: 978-1-6642-8831-7 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-6642-8832-4 (hc)

ISBN: 978-1-6642-8830-0 (e)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2022924098

WestBow Press rev. date: 01/13/2023

Dedication

To my parents...

I would not be the woman I am today without your unending love, guidance, and support. Thank you for raising me to be the best version of myself.

To my kids...

you are my heart and I love you more than you know. I struggle, overcome, and survive the trials of life to be the best mom that I can be for you. Thank you for being my inspiration every day!

Contents

Introduction

Chapter 1 How It Began

Chapter 2 The First Disaster

Chapter 3 The Second Disaster

Chapter 4 The Third Disaster

Chapter 5 Nowadays

Chapter 6 Parting Words

…For I am going to do something in your days that you would not believe even if you were told.

HABAKKUK 1:5

Introduction

Like so many of you, God gave me a story. The events that changed my world and helped shape the new life I live now are not earth shattering. But they were messy. Whether the unthinkable is happening to you or to me, there is a lesson to be learned in how we choose to respond to the circumstances we are given and how we allow those events to change (or not change) us. I chose to change and to be changed. Changed by the circumstances, but even more so by our sweet Lord and the people He strategically placed all around me. The friends and family that surrounded and sheltered me but also the strangers that unknowingly helped to carry me for six extremely long months. Through it all, every single moment—happy, miserable, or somewhere in between—can be used to glorify our Savior. My story is not one that I wanted, but it’s mine, and I am making the choice to use it to glorify God in whatever way I can!

Now I believe, without a shadow of a doubt, that God is the author of my life and all of yours as well. Until we draw our last breath, the life story He is planning for me continues to unfold. He is penning the words even as we speak. His plans for me and you are so good. But let’s be real. Life isn’t all rainbows, and unicorns, and cake. (I really wish it was, because oh, how I love some cake!) Some days life gets muddy, and I cannot see God doing those amazing things that make life beautiful because even though we all expect them, dark and gloomy days most often crash into our life at the most unpredictable times. Remember, scholars have read the Bible many times. Myself? Not so many…but I think we would agree that God does not promise that life will be easy when we accept, trust, and follow Him. Given that, I have concluded that the only real answer to living this life between His gardens is to try my best to follow Him wherever He may lead me, and to trust that He knows exactly what He is doing!

Some of you may have picked this book up because you heard it’s an unimaginable story, and others may be looking for a ray of hope. Whether the weather in your life is sunny, overcast, cold, or stormy, let me just say: I see you. This story is for you. Please, do not let the enemy lead you to believe you are alone in your struggles. There were countless days on my journey when I felt alone. Despite family and friends blowing up my phone and showing up unexpectedly, loneliness still crept in on me. And as of today, I haven’t met anyone who hasn’t come face to face with a day like that before. Some of us are just a little more open about those times in our lives than others, but either way, life will eventually impact us all in ways we do not necessarily want it to.

If you are struggling with life or faith today, know that there is an amazing hope hovering over you at this very moment. It’s almost palpable for me as I write these words. My hopeful prayer for this book is that God may use my pain, experiences, and (spoiler alert) triumphs to touch someone somewhere in His perfect and inspiring way. That He may receive all the glory I can fathom for intervening, and for sending beautiful people into my life when I needed help the most. The promise God has made to always be with us is so very true; I know because I’ve lived it. Please see through my life, and believe for your own, that even though we may not realize it, God is always right there with us. He wants good for us, and the love He extends to us is beyond measure. We will see Him moving and protecting us if we will just open our eyes and hearts to Him and His love.

For several years now, I have felt a more-than-gentle nudge to tell you my story. Let’s not lie; I have fought that nudge like a toddler fighting bedtime. I would start to write and within a few days, give up and put it aside. I tried every excuse I could to push writing any sort of article, book, or whatever to the back of my mind because every time I started to write, negative thoughts flooded my mind. Now, I’m not completely senseless; I know those thoughts came straight from Satan himself, but they have been very real, and I have shamefully succumbed to them way too many times. The enemy constantly whispers that my story isn’t any worse than anyone else’s. And he is right. He tells me that no one wants or needs to hear from me. He could be right. He reminds me that I am about as southern as they come, and claims that I have no business writing a book because I am definitely not a writer. And again, he could be right. But there is one thing that I know for sure. Satan wants nothing good for my life or for yours. He wants us living in fear and disobeying when we hear and feel God moving us. And I was allowing him to win.

Every single time I laid this book aside and simply tried to get on with my life, God brought it back up again. Yep! It became quite comical. I would make a half-hearted attempt to be compliant and start writing but then set it aside again within a few days. God would graciously give me some brief space, and then bring it right back up again and again and again.

When people say that God is persistent, believe it! During my prayer time or during some random study time, I kept running across devotions and scriptures jumping off the page, telling me to share my story. How did I interpret that? Pure coincidence. Then, He spoke through my kids. I’m guessing because He definitely knows that’s the way to get to me! Because, like most of you moms out there, my life tends to revolve around the kids. I assume God decided to use that to get my undivided attention. My son, D., came to me one night and, out of the blue, suggested that I write a book about everything that has happened to us. Well, that seemed more than a little odd, especially since my career is in early child development. Never have I done anything in my life even remotely related to writing. So, I did what any woman would do...laughed and ignored it. Months later, I was taking some silly online quiz with my younger daughter, T., where she had to answer questions about me. One of the questions asked, If I became famous, what would it be for? Without hesitation, she answered, writing a book. Why would she say that? Where in the world did my own kids come up with all this write-a-book nonsense? It became so ridiculously obvious that when I would throw my little tantrum and set writing aside, I could almost audibly hear God scolding me like I do my own kids, saying, Child, will you not listen to me and be obedient? I am making this as clear as I can for you!

So, here we are! This is me trying my hardest to be obedient to what I think our amazing God is telling me to do. I decided to officially relinquish my fight to not write this book as I read the story of the demon-possessed man in Mark 5. Oh, I have read the words before, but this time they stung my heart.