“And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.” — Romans 8:28(NIV)
We are quick to think our brokenness cannot be used by God. Believing there are limits to grace. That purpose is for other people. People with cleaner histories and lighter pasts.
This week on Change Your View, I sat with a woman who is living proof that none of that is true.
She Refused to Break
Krystle Hood is the author of From Prostitution to Purpose: The Making of a Woman Who Refused to Break. She walked through one of the most painful, isolating seasons a woman can endure — survived it, walked out of it, and then made the courageous decision to name it publicly so someone else could find their way to freedom.
She is now a mentor to young girls, the founder of Krystle Klear Visions, and a woman whose voice carries the unmistakable authority of someone who has been through the fire and come out refined.
Scripture Has Always Made Room for This
God has never disqualified a woman because of where she has been. Rahab, a prostitute, is named in the lineage of Jesus. The woman at the well carried a history that made her an outcast. Outcast in society but not an outcast to Jesus. Jesus chose her as the first person He told He was the Messiah. Mary Magdalene bore wounds the religious community counted as permanent, yet she was the first witness of the resurrection.
Krystle’s story is not an exception to this pattern. It is a continuation of it.
What Shame Cannot Survive
Shame lives in silence. Krystle ended that silence by putting her story on the cover of a book with her name on it. She did not soften the title. Did not reach for a safer way to say it. She named it. In naming it, she took back everything shame had tried to own.
“You will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.” — John 8:32 (NIV)
The Ministry That Grew from the Mess
What Krystle built on the other side of her story — the book, the business, the mentorship, the advocacy — is not separate from her pain. It grew directly out of it. That is how God works. He does not waste what we have carried. He multiplies it into something others can be fed by.
Her story is proof that Romans 8:28 means exactly what it says. All things.
Listen to my full conversation with Krystle Hood on Change Your View using this link, https://youtu.be/PbAQ3lBeA-k?si=aVAnn2lyTXDs4JFi
Reflection: Where are you telling yourself your story is too broken for God to use? What would it look like to trust that God is working in your story and writing it?
