Listen: Darlene Zschech chats to Laura Bennett
By Clare BruceWednesday 18 Dec 2019Hope AfternoonsChristian LivingReading Time: 2 minutes
We all go through rough seasons in life, but usually they’re relatively private; but for Darlene Zschech, some of her toughest moments have been played out very publicly.
When you’re an internationally loved singer-pastor-worship artist, and all your hair has fallen out due to chemotherapy, it’s pretty hard to hide. That’s just one of the many seasons Darlene has walked through in recent years.
In a recent chat with Hope 103.2, we asked her how she gets through those rough patches in her life. Darlene said her secret ingredient is to “walk and pray”.
In her younger years, tough times tended to send her running to her friends as first port of call. But these days, she has learnt to ‘hold her tongue’ and instead, go to God first.
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“I walk and pray,” she said. ”When there’s something that’s really, like, turmoil in my heart, I just get out the door and I pray, and walk on the beach… and just pray until I feel there’s some sort of release in myself.”
As a pastor and an empath, Darlene said she can often feel weighed down by peoples’ struggles, and in these moments, she takes her burden to the Lord.
“I’m a soft person, and I pick up atmospheres in rooms, so that’s a good thing, but also I can tend to take it all on board and want to make sure everyone’s okay,” she said, “and that can become quite a weight.
“So walk-and-pray is my thing. You need to get out, you need to get your mind off the [problem], and keep disciplining yourself to keep leaning in to God.
“I can see why the Bible says ‘cast your cares’ [on God]. Because it’s active. You’ve got to cast them. It’s not just like ‘Oh, Jesus has got it’. No, you’ve got to actually physically almost throw your cares on Him. Because we’re pretty good at holding them ourselves.”