Sometimes God takes us the long way around. Not because He’s lost, and not because we’ve taken a wrong turn, but because He loves us enough to lead us through places we would have never chosen on our own. Ask anyone who has followed Jesus longer than a few weeks and they’ll nod along with a gratitude and maybe take a deep breath.
When we look back over our story, the jobs we didn’t want, the moves we didn’t ask for, the
challenges we prayed would end sooner, those are so often the very places God was doing His most important work. It is almost as if God specializes in producing what we could never cultivate by ourselves: patience, trust, compassion, courage, faith. Things we desperately need, but almost never choose to learn the slow way.
The truth is God will regularly take His children places they would never have planned to go in order to produce in and through them things they could never have produced on their own.
Moses didn’t plan the desert. Joseph didn’t plan the pit. David never planned a cave. Mary and Joseph didn’t plan Egypt.
But somehow each of those unexpected places shaped them into the people God called them to be. Not in spite of difficulty, but right through it.
Paul puts it this way: “being strengthened with all power according to his glorious might so that you may have great endurance and patience” (Colossians 1:11). Notice that God strengthens us not merely for the good days, but for the days that feel anything but good.
We love the mountaintop moments. God loves forming us in the wilderness. Not because He is cruel, because He knows the path to true life. He knows how easily we settle for comfort when He made us for something deeper. And maybe that is part of the good news, God’s leading isn’t always comfortable, but it is always purposeful.
So if you find yourself in a season you didn’t plan, if life feels sideways or confusing or slower than it should be, take a breath. God isn’t wasting this. He is shaping you. He is strengthening you. He is preparing you for what He is calling you to do next. And He is right there with you in it.
The world says the good life is found in control, predictability, and convenience. Jesus gently invites us to follow Him into surrender, trust, and obedience. Only one of those paths can actually transform a life.
peace,
Nick
When we look back over our story, the jobs we didn’t want, the moves we didn’t ask for, the
challenges we prayed would end sooner, those are so often the very places God was doing His most important work. It is almost as if God specializes in producing what we could never cultivate by ourselves: patience, trust, compassion, courage, faith. Things we desperately need, but almost never choose to learn the slow way.
The truth is God will regularly take His children places they would never have planned to go in order to produce in and through them things they could never have produced on their own.
Moses didn’t plan the desert. Joseph didn’t plan the pit. David never planned a cave. Mary and Joseph didn’t plan Egypt.
But somehow each of those unexpected places shaped them into the people God called them to be. Not in spite of difficulty, but right through it.
Paul puts it this way: “being strengthened with all power according to his glorious might so that you may have great endurance and patience” (Colossians 1:11). Notice that God strengthens us not merely for the good days, but for the days that feel anything but good.
We love the mountaintop moments. God loves forming us in the wilderness. Not because He is cruel, because He knows the path to true life. He knows how easily we settle for comfort when He made us for something deeper. And maybe that is part of the good news, God’s leading isn’t always comfortable, but it is always purposeful.
So if you find yourself in a season you didn’t plan, if life feels sideways or confusing or slower than it should be, take a breath. God isn’t wasting this. He is shaping you. He is strengthening you. He is preparing you for what He is calling you to do next. And He is right there with you in it.
The world says the good life is found in control, predictability, and convenience. Jesus gently invites us to follow Him into surrender, trust, and obedience. Only one of those paths can actually transform a life.
peace,
Nick