God has used Grammy award-winning singer/songwriter Laura Story’s marriage to Martin Elvington to bring attention to the full story of His Word, His story, and His truth. As told in her book, When God Doesn’t Fix It: Lessons you Never wanted to Learn, Truths you can’t Live Without, Martin is Laura’s dream come true – just not the dream she created.

Quotes That Summarize The Story

Early in their story when Martin began demonstrating atypical behavior, Laura cried out, “God, you’ve got to help me. Something has to change!”

After they received the diagnosis for Martin’s brain tumor, her thought was, “In the future, the brain tumor will be a great story to tell of how God brought us through it all, and we will all live happily ever after.”

The night before the surgery to remove Martin’s tumor, Laura fought against the temptation to think God owed them, to “remind God of all the good things Martin and I have done for Him.”

As complications from the tumor and surgery grew from short-term to long-term, Laura began to see the powerlessness that she and even the doctors had to fix Martin’s health. And she began to see a new perspective about God, too. “Jesus came to heal, but He doesn’t always fix the broken things I want fixed.”

Living with the lasting effects of her husband’s brain tumor surgery and knowing that her happily-ever-after didn’t come in a nice, neat package, Laura admitted, “joy came when I took tentative steps in God’s direction.”

Full of doubts and uncertainty, Laura was not afraid to ask Him “Why?” But He turned her questions to “How?” “How might God use this for His glory?”

One of God’s many answers to Laura was to use her music to reveal His faithfulness to her listeners. She began to wonder, “What if the worst thing I have to offer – my broken story – is really the best thing I have to offer? I learned that when I was willing to share my story, God used it to heal others emotionally, physically, and spiritually. And that’s what healed me.”

Once Laura put her dreams into God’s hands, she had to learn to trust Him. “I learned that God could, and would, provide for my deepest longings. It just might look different than if I had been in control.”

Laura wanted to blame the problems in her life on her husband’s disability, but she humbly realized, “the biggest problem in our marriage was our sin. Martin’s disability offers me more chances to get it right (or wrong) than most other people get in their marriage. To be better in our brokenness isn’t to remove the brokenness; it’s to remove the selfishness, pride, impatience, or other sinful behaviors we blame on the brokenness. Martin did not have a brain tumor so I would learn how to be more patient. But God can use our circumstances to teach us to have patience and a thousand other things that make our marriage stronger than it would be without our trials.”

Laura and Martin have accepted their hard story because they have learned that, “even if our situation may not get better, we can get better. Despite our brokenness, we wouldn’t want it any other way, for it is through our brokenness that God is the hero of our story.”

If we are afflicted, it is for your comfort and salvation; and if we are comforted, it is for your comfort, which you experience when you patiently endure the same sufferings that we suffer…And…the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us. (2 Cor. 1:6; Rom. 8:18)