This week, we’ll hear from Victoria Arlen, a former Paralympic swimmer and ESPN personality, who shares her harrowing journey of surviving a rare autoimmune condition that left her in a “locked-in” vegetative state for four years beginning at age eleven. Beyond her physical recovery, she faced the intense emotional pressure of being labeled a “miracle,” while silently struggling with trauma and mental health. She eventually found peace by learning to embrace vulnerability, a transformation she details here.

Later in the episode, we hear from author and actress Hillary Phillips as she bravely shares about transforming a broken view of God—seeing Him as angry and tallying mistakes—into an authentic relationship. After a complicated childhood turned into years of internalizing pain, Hillary recounts the raw moment she cried out to God in anger, only to be met with a supernatural love she never knew was possible. 

Links, Products, and Resources Mentioned:

Jesus Calling Podcast

Jesus Calling

Jesus Always

Jesus Listens

Past interview: Chris & Lindsey Wheeler

Upcoming interview: Jameson and Mary Reeder

Victoria Arlen

Victoria’s Victory Foundation

Dancing with The Stars

Hillary Phillips

My Brain While Reading the Bible - Book by Hillary Phillips

The Big Blue Book - Show ft. Hillary Phillips

The Greatest Thing Ever! - Movie ft. Hillary Phillips

Interview Quotes:

“What the doctors failed to realize was I could hear everything that they were saying, and I could see, but nobody knew that I could. So I was literally locked inside my own body.” - Victoria Arlen

“..You really have a choice—you fight or you give in. I saw how my family refused to give up on me.. They set up a hospital room in our living room and basically brought the world to me, because in their eyes, if they had a month with me, or a couple years, or the rest of my life, they wanted to take care of me.” - Victoria Arlen

“I had this peace that surpassed understanding, and this journey as my mom calls it—our tragic, beautiful journey—is where we found God. It’s where we found our family, on a whole different level, and it really set my life in a whole different direction.” - Victoria Arlen

“When I broke down, that was the beginning of that breakthrough in which God orchestrated so many things, to essentially help me get to that path where, Oh, I get that peace that surpasses understanding.” - Victoria Arlen

“It was the first time the Gospel really sunk in for me—You don’t just love me because of how I perform or because of all these outward things, You love me [through] all of that stuff that I’m seeing.”  - Hillary Phillips

“Learning to be still with God and realize, Oh wait, you don’t actually expect me to be anything other than who I am. You don’t call me to wear a mask. You call me just to be. And learning how to do that is such a liberating thing, but also it’s just ongoing.”  - Hillary Phillips

“I was angry and felt wronged, and God really started to challenge me on how I was showing up in love. One of the things I realized was that I was not accepting my parents as they were [or] where they were. I was holding them to this idea of who they needed to be and who they weren’t.. God really helped me realize that’s not actually walking in love. I am rejecting who they are and only holding them to this idea or their past.”  - Hillary Phillips

“God didn’t promise us an easy life, He didn’t promise us a life free of suffering, but He did promise us hope and a future. He promised us that whenever we are struggling, He’ll be there with us through it. He’ll never leave us or forsake us.”  - Hillary Phillips

“I think that God used that experience to really show me His love is because I had to learn to sit and see trauma up close, but also recognize it’s not my job to fix.”  - Hillary Phillips

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Enjoy watching these additional videos from Jesus Calling YouTube channel!

Audio Episodes:     https://bit.ly/3zvjbK7 

Bonus Podcasts:     https://bit.ly/3vfLlGw 

Jesus Listens: Stories of Prayer:  https://bit.ly/3Sd0a6C 

Peace for Everyday Life:     https://bit.ly/3zzwFoj 

Peace in Uncertain Times:     https://bit.ly/3cHfB6u 

What’s Good?     https://bit.ly/3vc2cKj 

Enneagram:     https://bit.ly/3hzRCCY 

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