Scott's Testimony - Living Influence with Bill Thrall and Scott Boyd

Living Influence with Bill Thrall and Scott Boyd

Episode: Scott's Testimony

Date: January 14, 2026
Hosts: Bill Thrall & Scott Boyd

Episode Overview

This episode centers on Scott Boyd's deeply personal testimony, first shared as a church Advent reflection on the theme of "joy." Scott explores the paradox of finding joy amidst suffering, drawing on his journey through grief and loss—particularly the death of his first wife to cancer and the subsequent, unexpected joy he found with his second wife, Eileen, who also lost her spouse. The testimony offers honest insights about vulnerability, grief, hope, and the capacity for joy that can emerge even in life’s hardest seasons.

Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Scriptural Foundation: Joy and Suffering

00:16–01:25
Scott opens with Luke 2:10–11, tying the proclamation of Jesus' birth to great joy—set against the foreknowledge of suffering to come.
- “Fear not, for behold, I bring you good news of a great joy that will be for all the people.”
- “When God had the angels make that proclamation, I think he knew the next 33 years and what they would be like.” (Scott, 01:10)
He references Hebrews, noting Jesus “for the joy set before him endured the suffering of the cross,” merging suffering and joy in one profound idea.

2. Personal Narrative: Loss and Vulnerability

01:26–07:01
- Scott reflects on hesitancy in sharing his story, not wanting to be defined by tragedy.
- He details the dual cancer diagnoses in 2019 for both himself (his wife) and Eileen (her husband).
  - "I started the essay with the words, 'I'm a man of sorrow.'" (Scott, 02:00)
  - Both illnesses were essentially terminal; Scott’s wife, Bev, succumbed after 20 months.
- Scott shares the emotional complexity: resenting the way cancer upended life, then feeling guilty for that resentment.
- He and Bev faced everything honestly—talking about God, healing, dying, and the future.
  - “We didn’t know if we should talk about healing or dying at the same time... Were we not in faith to talk about dying while we were praying for healing?” (Scott, 04:20)
- Suffering, Scott observes, eliminates pretense:
  - “Suffering takes away all pretense, all performance, all ego. What remained was only the truest me and the truest Bev standing in raw reality together. Suffering doesn’t let you hide.” (Scott, 04:45)

3. Discovering the Paradox: Suffering Carves Space for Joy

04:46–06:30
- Paradoxically, in suffering, they found deeper intimacy, love, and connection to God.
- Joy, hope, and grief, Scott says, often coexist:
  - “Joy, hope and grief share the same territory because they require the same things—being fully real.” (Scott, 05:45)
- As Bev passed, Scott experienced profound absence and grief, yet also an unexplained trust in God:
  - “She left a silence I had never known... I found trust in Him that I couldn’t explain.” (Scott, 06:45)

4. Rebuilding: Love After Loss

07:02–10:00
- Scott describes God nudging him to seek companionship, leading to meeting Eileen, whose journey of loss mirrored his own.
- They connected first through text, openly sharing about their late spouses and grief:
  - "She was okay with me talking about Bev—that I still loved her. I was okay with her talking about Jeff—that she still loved him. Well, we helped each other grieve through those texts." (Scott, 08:13)
- Scott reflects on facing grief rather than running:
  - “They say if you run away from grief, you will stay in it longer, like running away from the coming night. But if you face it and you walk into it, you’ll find the dawn sooner.” (Scott, 09:05)

5. A Greater Joy After Suffering

10:01–13:55
- Through their journey, Scott and Eileen discovered new depths of joy and redemption:
  - "We found our joy filled the spaces that our suffering had carved out... a joy that came from going through suffering.” (Scott, 11:05)
- He observes an honest reality:
  - "Joy is harder than grief. Hope is harder than grief. We're all afraid of joy, that it won't last, so we avoid it." (Scott, 12:10)
  - Many avoid hoping or letting in joy, fearing future loss.

6. Receiving Joy: Vulnerability and Acceptance

13:56–14:50
- Scott concludes with a reflection on receiving love and joy as an act of vulnerability and humility:
  - “To receive joy, you must be willing to be loved. And being loved requires letting someone love you—admitting you have need, admitting you can't do it alone... The key word is receive." (Scott, 13:58)
  - He circles back to the Christmas refrain: "Joy to the world. The Lord has come. Let earth receive her king." (Scott, 14:45)

Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

On Suffering and Joy:
“God puts the words suffering and joy together.” (Scott, 01:15)
On Facing Grief:
“Suffering doesn’t let you hide.” (Scott, 04:50)
On Hope and Grief:
“Joy, hope, and grief share the same territory because they require the same things—being fully real.” (Scott, 05:47)
On Letting Joy In:
“Joy is harder than grief. Hope is harder than grief. We’re all afraid of joy, that it won’t last, so we avoid it.” (Scott, 12:10)
On Receiving and Belonging:
“To receive joy, you must be willing to be loved...” (Scott, 13:58)

Important Timestamps

00:16 – Opening with scripture and the theme of joy
01:26 – Beginning Scott’s cancer journey narrative
04:46 – The stripping away of pretense through suffering
07:02 – Transition to life after Bev’s passing and meeting Eileen
10:01 – Realizing deeper joy post-suffering
13:56 – Final reflections on vulnerability and receiving love

Summary

Scott’s testimony offers a candid, moving exploration of how suffering and loss do not exclude but can carve greater capacity for joy. Through vulnerability with God, his first wife, and eventually with Eileen, he found healing and a willingness to let joy in—even when it’s difficult and frightening. This episode is a testament to hope, resilience, and the powerful, unexpected ways God can redeem and expand the spaces left by sorrow.

Listeners will come away with a deeper appreciation for the complexity of joy, the value of facing pain directly, and the calling to receive love as a grace—echoing the enduring message: “Joy to the world. The Lord has come. Let earth receive her king.”

Transcript

A (0:00)

Welcome to Living Influence. I'm your host, Scott Boyd, and I've got an audio that I want to share with you. It's a testimonial that I shared at my church during Advent, and I was asked to share on the topic of joy. And I shared on the topic of joy and suffering. I hope you'll enjoy it. I'm going to start with the scripture. Fear not, for behold, I bring you good news of a great joy that will be for all the people. For unto you is born this day in the city of David a savior who is Christ the Lord. They call this Advent candle, the pink candle, the shepherd's candle, because the shepherds were told this news by the angels. It's interesting. The angels said that this was going to be good news of a great joy. And when God had the angels make that proclamation, I think he knew the next 33 years and what they would be like. Joy to the world the Lord has come Let earth receive her king. It's a song we sang. We sang it this morning. And then in Hebrews, Jesus, for the joy set before him, endured the suffering of the cross, despising the shame. And here, in this one sentence in Hebrews, God puts the words suffering and joy together. I feel embarrassed to tell my story because I don't want to be that guy that always tells his story of tragedy. But in September 2020, a friend of mine, a mentor, asked me to write to him an essay about me. He said, tell me who you are. I started the essay with the words, I'm a man of sorrow. You see. In January of 2019, my wife of 38 years was diagnosed with stage 3 pancreatic cancer. My current wife, Eileen, her husband, the same month, was diagnosed with stage four colon cancer. Both were essentially a death sentence. Jeff lived 16 months longer, while Bev's journey took 20. The cancer and chemo knocked my wife off her feet, and slowly she suffered as the disease took more and more until the cancer and its sufferings took her life. Not being in pain yourself, yet watching the suffering, that was difficult on its own. Setting aside all of your plans and aspirations to care for your spouse was voluntary. It was necessary, and yet, in its own way, also difficult. You resented what the cancer stole and felt guilty for resenting it. Bev and I had learned to trust what shows up and bring those things into the light with one another. We talked about God, about healing, about dying, about suffering, about my future. She wanted me to get married again, about her leaving and the things that she wasn't Going to get to see, like, her granddaughters get married. We didn't know if we should talk about healing and dying at the same time. Felt like we were like not in faith to talk about dying. While we were praying for healing, we asked God to heal Bev. We pleaded for God to heal her. We found that suffering takes away all pretense, all performance, all ego. What remained was only the truest me and the truest Bev standing in raw reality together. Suffering doesn't let you hide. The paradox we found in suffering was we discovered more intimacy, more capacity to love, more connection with God, more joy in what we were believing our faith was all about. We knew from the doctors we'd seen that there was no hope. And yet the days that we had hope gave us reprieve from the foreboding sentence of cancer. When we held hope that God would help us find a way through, we enjoyed the little things in life so much more. Joy, hope and grief share the same territory because they require the same things being fully real. With no route for escape, Bev passed in August of 2020. She left a silence I had never known. My sons were all in their 30s and had families of their own. They each were on their own journey of grieving. The house that held our lives now held only empty echoes of what once was. I would search my phone for voice messages from Bev so I could hear her voice. But somehow God was still with me. I found trust in him that I couldn't explain. And I felt him nudging me after a while to start looking for another companion. I'd been grieving the loss of my wife for almost two years. I'd done the research. The doctors at Mayo and MD Anderson were compassionate in telling us what our doctors wouldn't say, that there was no way through. I had known this day was coming for a long time. In responding to the nudging, I felt God given me. I found this woman from California on eharmony. She liked my picture. I asked her, eileen, what's it like to be retired at 57? We started texting. For two months, we did nothing but text one another. But she was okay with me talking about Bev, that I still loved her. I was okay with her talking about Jeff, that she still loved him. Well, we helped each other grieve through those texts. They say if you run away from grief, you will stay in it longer. Like running away from the coming night. But if you face it and you walk into it, you'll find the dawn sooner. We helped each other to continue to trust in God. And in the journey. We found a joy in God and in each other that we did not know could happen. We discovered that God is our redeemer in more ways than we ever realized. We found our joy filled the spaces that our suffering had carved out. We found that we have more capacity for joy than ever before. We both laugh more and cry harder in movies that bring back to life some of what we experienced. It was joy that came from going through suffering. And here's what no one tells you. Joy is harder than grief. Hope is harder than grief. We're all afraid of joy, that it won't last, so we avoid it. We won't let ourselves fully feel joy because we're terrified it will be taken away. And hope. We avoid hope for fear that if it doesn't come true, we'll hurt more. But Eileen and I had already had our joy taken away. The worst had happened, and God had been with us the entire time. And he surprised us with a new joy that was even greater than we had known before. So why is it so hard to let joy in? Because to receive joy, you must be willing to be loved. And being loved requires letting someone love you. Admitting you have need, admitting you can't do it alone, Letting someone to see your poverty, receiving what you didn't earn. And the key word is receive. Are you willing to receive what our Jesus offers as a free gift? Joy to the world. The Lord has come. Let earth receive her king. Thank you.