We’re looking forward to introducing you to Cassie Rhoda. Check out our conversation below.
Cassie, so good to connect and we’re excited to share your story and insights with our audience. There’s a ton to learn from your story, but let’s start with a warm up before we get into the heart of the interview. What are you being called to do now, that you may have been afraid of before?
I’m being called to a new level of vulnerability in telling my story. If I’m going to connect with and encourage anyone listening, I have to be brave enough to be vulnerable.
There are so many hurting people hiding pain to avoid reliving the trauma. This breaks my heart. I understand because I was once in this place, too. Fear kept me bound for years to chains I could have been freed from.
For a long time, I feared the thoughts and actions of humans and hid my pain, only to discover that the unresolved pain was what was harming me. The complex trauma was so much that it made me sick physically and mentally. I could no longer feel safe enough to leave my house or function normally in my body. I was forced to pause normal life and get help.
I’ve spent a year in trauma therapy and have learned that if we’re going to heal, we have to let the light shine in the darkness. We can’t be afraid of reliving the pain. We have to face it. We have to talk about it. Being vulnerable is the only way to healing.
Can you briefly introduce yourself and share what makes you or your brand unique?
Hi, I’m Cassie
Watercolor and Mixed-media Artist/Painter, Muralist, Christian Writer, Helper and Advocate for the Suffering, and Wife and Mom all in for Jesus.
My passion is Jesus. He has radically changed my life, and I can’t help but talk about Him.
I love working with other people and businesses who want to share the love of Jesus with those who need hope, joy, peace, and freedom. Some of the ways I am called to do that are through art, writing, and speaking.
Bible Journaling through my art has opened up not only a new level of healing for me, but has swung the door open for new ideas and styles of art and writing that I’m now exploring.
My new project, The Milestone Project, is on canvas. I’m taking my love of journaling, watercolors, and mixed media supplies to canvas as storytelling pieces of art that share my experience of healing through trauma.
I’m an advocate and friend to the outcasts, neglected, and suffering. I embrace and celebrate imperfections. To me, we are in the purest form of beauty when we don’t cover up how God intentionally created us. Our broken pieces are beautiful and useful to display.
When I’m not creating…
I’m usually piecing together a pretty jigsaw puzzle, baking, hiking in the Colorado mountains alone with Jesus or with my family, browsing through the flower, art, and book shops for fun, on a “coffee walk and talk” date with my Hubby, or curled up with twinkle lights watching a movie with my teenage daughter.
Okay, so here’s a deep one: What part of you has served its purpose and must now be released?
The old, unhealed Cassie I now say goodbye to. She’s gone. The memories are still there, and the lessons learned are a part of the new me.
The new girl dances through pain, laughs without fear of the future, takes the hands of fallen people and lifts them, and smiles with a new twinkle in her eyes.
I have had to let go of people, places, and things to be this new healed woman. Anything that causes me unhealthy fear or stops me from moving forward into the healed me has to go. It’s that simple and yet difficult to let go, sometimes.
I’m thankful for what I’ve been through, though I wouldn’t want to go through it ever again. Because of my painful history, I have a genuine compassion for heartbroken people that overflows into everything else I do.
I allowed a lot of suffering in my life that I was unaware of, which almost destroyed me. I can’t afford to go back to that place. I’ve worked too hard with wise counsel to rearrange my life and heal from the harmful past. So now, I release anything that tempts me to go back to the old, unhealed me.
What have been the defining wounds of your life—and how have you healed them?
Rape, sexual assaults, and abuse changed me, but they don’t define me. There is freedom from past traumas, even decades of complex trauma.
So many of us have been hiding behind our pain, leaving us stuck in the blazing fire of trauma and shame. I believe now is the time to bravely link arms with safe people to walk out of the fire of trauma and into becoming a free and revived person.
I heal by talking about the traumas, helping others through theirs, and seeking God’s help. From my experience, there is no other healing greater than what comes from holding the hand of Jesus and letting Him boldly walk you through the fires of life into freedom and peace.
No one can ever tell me Jesus isn’t real because He’s real to me. I’ve experienced Him miraculously. His presence showed up in the middle of my suffering and picked me up off the bathroom floor when the pain was so unbearable that I didn’t want to live anymore.
I can relate to Job in the Bible. The first half of my life has been suffering after suffering with more suffering. How does one person keep going in life with hope and peace after every dream was destroyed by evil? I can move forward joyfully only because of the love and mercy of a compassionate God willing to lift His girl’s head again.
That’s how I’m continuing to heal while using my gifts to help others heal, too. I can now see how God, in His faithfulness, has flipped all the evil done to me for good. His love set me free so I can take that other girl’s hand (you) and lead her out of the fire, too.
If you’re reading this with tears in your eyes because your pain is great, grab hold and let the girl behind you grab hold, too. We aren’t alone. We can move forward and get through this hand in hand.
“I sought the Lord, and He answered me; He delivered me from all my fears. Those who look to Him are radiant; their faces are never covered with shame.” -Psalm 34:4-5
Isaiah 61
So a lot of these questions go deep, but if you are open to it, we’ve got a few more questions that we’d love to get your take on. What’s a cultural value you protect at all costs?
I wholeheartedly believe in maintaining a fun and relaxing rest rhythm. In Christian culture, it’s called Sabbath. It’s not a legalistic requirement as some think, but an invitation to trust that God is in control of your life. So many of us work ourselves to death and have a hard time receiving the gift of rest.
When I step out of the line of my own value of rest as a priority, I notice my mental and physical health decline. So I will protect at all costs rhythms of rest alongside my work, doing something fun and relaxing on my “Joy List” consistently every day and week.
Okay, we’ve made it essentially to the end. One last question before you go. What is the story you hope people tell about you when you’re gone?
I hope there are stories after stories of how my love of Jesus was evident and how He worked through me to help others. What’s the point in life if we live it selfishly? I would love to hear from heaven…“Her story led me to Jesus. I healed and now have peace. I’m inspired to help others, too.”
Contact Info:
- Website: https://cassierhoda.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/cassierhoda/
- Other: Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.com/cassierhodaart/
