There are seasons in life when we wonder if anything is happening at all.

We pray. We wait. We trust. We keep putting one foot in front of the other. Yet nothing seems to move according to our plans or our timeline.

Then one day, we look back and realize that while we were waiting, God was working.

It has been several years since my last blog post. In those years, life has unfolded in ways I never could have predicted. I lost my mother. I faced a brain tumor and underwent brain surgery. I navigated the challenges of Cushing’s disease while continuing to manage Lupus and Myositis. I wrote another book. I continued serving, teaching, and watering wherever God sent me. Some seasons were marked by grief, others by healing, and still others by growth that was happening beneath the surface where no one could see it.

Yet even in those moments, God was working. Not always in ways I could see, and not always according to the timeline I would have chosen, but faithfully nonetheless. Looking back, I realize that some of the greatest growth in my life happened during seasons I would never have volunteered for. God was teaching me to trust Him when I did not have answers and to find peace in His presence when circumstances made no sense.

Like many people, I have asked God, “Why now?” and “Why this way?”

What I continue to learn is that God’s timing and our timing are rarely the same.

We often want immediate answers, quick breakthroughs, and visible results. God is often more concerned with preparation than presentation. Before something manifests in our lives, there is usually a season of development taking place that we do not fully understand.

The life of Joseph illustrates this beautifully.

Joseph received a dream from God as a young man. He knew God had spoken, but he could not have imagined the journey that would follow. Before the dream was fulfilled, Joseph experienced betrayal, slavery, false accusations, and imprisonment. Years passed between the promise and the manifestation.

From a human perspective, those years may have looked like detours.

From God’s perspective, they were preparation.

The pit prepared him.

The prison prepared him.

The waiting prepared him.

Every experience developed the character, wisdom, humility, and leadership Joseph would need when his appointed time arrived.

When Pharaoh called for Joseph, the opportunity appeared suddenly. Yet the truth is that God had been preparing him all along.

The manifestation was sudden.

The preparation was not.

I believe many of us find ourselves somewhere in that preparation process.

We may not understand why certain doors closed, why certain relationships ended, why grief visited our lives, why health challenges appeared unexpectedly, or why the journey has taken longer than expected. Yet Scripture repeatedly reminds us that God is working even when we cannot see it.

Ecclesiastes 3:11 tells us, “He has made everything beautiful in its time.”

Not our time.

His time.

That verse does not suggest that every season feels beautiful while we are living through it. Rather, it reminds us that God sees the complete picture while we only see the current chapter.

Looking back over the last several years, I can see God’s hand in places where I once saw only uncertainty. I can see growth where I once saw delay. I can see purpose where I once saw pain.

The waiting was not wasted.

The losses were not meaningless.

The diagnoses were not without purpose.

The lessons were not accidental.

God was preparing, strengthening, pruning, healing, and teaching.

As I return to this space, my encouragement to you is simple: do not despise the season you are in.

If God has given you a promise, continue to trust Him.

If you are grieving, allow Him to comfort you.

If you are healing, give yourself grace.

If you are growing, embrace the process.

If you are waiting, remember that waiting is not the same as being forgotten.

Continue watering what God has placed in your hands.

Continue learning.

Continue growing.

Continue choosing faith.

When the appointed time comes, what God has been cultivating beneath the surface will become visible.

Until then, trust the process and trust the One who is ordering your steps.

God’s timing is never late.

God’s timing is never wasted.

And God’s timing is always purposeful.

Be Encouraged…Be Blessed…Be Enriched…Be Authentically You!