Arguing with God Is Sort of Pointless 

Kim Lengling remembers the first nudge. Then the shove. She remembers the conversation going back and forth inside her head. You want me to do what? But arguing with God is sort of pointless, she says, and that’s why she started handing out nuggets of hope.

Inside her purse are polished rocks engraved with the word “hope.” When nudged to approach a perfect stranger, she obeys. “I’d love to give you a nugget of hope and wish you a blessed day,” she tells the unsuspecting. 

Or she’ll tuck little cards inside the pockets of sweaters and jeans at clothing stores. The cards offer a simple message: “The world is a better place because YOU are in it!” 

And then she’s on her way.

Reactions vary. Hugs. Tears. Surprise. Even anger. But Kim has noticed one thing: when offered one of her polished stones, everyone extends an open hand.

Arguing with God is sort of pointless because everyone needs a nugget of hope.

A Part-Time Nugget Tosser 

Kim hasn’t always been a nugget tosser. That’s a sideline.

Actually, she’s a multi-published author and host of the Let Fear Bounce podcast as well as a weekly local radio show, Voices for Vets. 

When not interviewing folks, writing, and compiling anthologies or working with veterans, she’s usually walking her canine office manager, Dexter, through the woods surrounding her home in rural Pennsylvania.

How we met eludes me. Social media likely played a central role. No matter. When we did meet, this former sales and marketing rep thought I might make a good guest on her podcast, and I knew she was perfect for the Accidental Blogger. 

For her, Let Fear Bounce is more than a catchy name. It’s how she chooses to live her life. She figures arguing with God is sort of pointless as is blaming Him or herself for the bad stuff that happens.  “No matter what . . . there is a nugget of hope to be found,” she says.

The Defining Moments

Where to begin in telling Kim’s story? How about in the beginning when she was just 19-years-old, then enlisted in the U.S. Air Force. 

Out of respect for Kim and her privacy, I’ll gloss over the specifics. Yes, an assault happened. And yes, she told no one for fear others might look at her differently or wonder what she had done to invite the harm.

As might be expected, the incident bubbled up many years later, triggered by divorce and other traumas. She found herself on her knees. Flashbacks. Dramatic weight loss. “I thought I was losing my mind.” A local vet group—her “brothers”—suspected PTSD “and dragged me to the VA.”

Only male counselors worked at the VA then, and confiding in a man proved difficult initially, but she continued seeing him. “I had to look at a lot of stuff and see myself in a different light,” she told me. “I saw myself as weak” and she wondered why she had let the incident happen.

Breakthrough came when she, with help from her counselor, concluded that she’d done nothing wrong, and that weakness didn’t define her character. Strength undergirded her, but fear had hobbled her and distorted her perception of herself.

Total freedom came when she embraced a simple truth: her experiences had only prepared her to become the woman she is today . . . the nugget tosser, the podcast host and author of a forthcoming book, Nuggets of Hope, which shares her encounters with those God nudges her to approach. 

“The world needs more hope and kindness, and just maybe I can change one person’s world for the better, if only for a moment.”

And it took a pandemic to set the wheels in motion. 

The Pandemic

“The whole world changed,” she said, remembering the day she’d lost her job due to Covid-related shutdowns. “You know what I was so sick of? I was sick of the media pushing fear out into the world every day. To me it had gone beyond the pale.”

With so many companies shuttered, she had to chart a new course, and within twenty-four hours she’d produced her first podcast, something she’d learn on the fly. “I didn’t even know what a podcast was.”

Given the circumstances and her own past, Let Fear Bounce seemed like an apt name.

“Everybody experiences fear of some sort,” she says. “It could be a fear of failure, the loss of self-esteem. I knew there are people who need to hear others’ stories. I was tired of being told I needed to be afraid.”

Four years and 225 guests later, Kim hasn’t looked back. She’s paying it forward and offering nuggets of hope. After all, arguing with God is sort of pointless, especially when nudged to spread a little love and break the chains of fear.