Trusting God’s Timing When Our Hearts Are Ready Before the Road Is

There are seasons when we believe we understand God’s plan. We see the direction clearly, feel the calling deeply, and begin to move forward with confidence. Our prayers feel aligned with our steps, and obedience feels almost effortless.

And then there are seasons when that same plan feels delayed, interrupted, or even undone.

Those seasons are not simply inconvenient. They test our patience, our faith, and our willingness to trust God when the path no longer makes sense.

Faith is often most clearly revealed not in movement, but in waiting.

When Timing Shifts and Faith Is Tested

Last year, as we prepared for what we believed was a God-ordained journey to Scotland, we expected to be traveling in late August. Everything in our hearts felt ready. When the timing did not align, we adjusted our plans to late December.

We trusted that the shift was intentional, even if we could not yet see the reason.

Faith often begins this way. We obey first and wait for understanding later.

Loss That Reveals God’s Protection

Before December arrived, our family experienced a significant loss. A death rippled through the lives of an aunt and four siblings and nephews, each now navigating grief, responsibility, and the weight of decisions surrounding shared assets and uncertain futures.

In the middle of heartbreak, exhaustion, and sorrow, something unexpected happened. We paused and praised God.

Had we already moved overseas, the emotional and logistical strain would have been overwhelming. In hindsight, what felt like a delay was actually protection. God had held us back not as punishment, but as provision.

Sometimes God’s delays are not denials, but mercies we recognize only in hindsight.

Obedience Without Understanding

Only a few weeks later, we applied for visas. That process brought a series of unexpected challenges that felt almost relentless. A biometrics appointment where documents that should have been uploaded were not. Requests from the UK to send documents to an email address that could not be found.

Ultimately, the application was rejected. Not because of wrongdoing or dishonesty, but because of a discrepancy in job title and description.

At first, my wife and I simply shook our heads. We prayed for clarity. We searched our hearts. We asked the question many believers wrestle with.

If God wanted us to go, why were there so many roadblocks?

But faith does not require full understanding. It requires obedience. It requires surrender. It requires trusting God not only when the outcome is clear, but when the purpose is hidden.

Walking the Mountain With Abraham

Scripture reminds us of Abraham and Isaac walking together up the mountain. Abraham carried the fire and the knife. Isaac carried the wood. Step by step, Abraham obeyed, even when obedience meant walking toward something that would shatter his heart.

He did not know how God would resolve it. He only knew who God was.

All the way to the moment Abraham raised the blade, heaven was silent. And only then did God intervene.

“Do not lay your hand on the boy or do anything to him, for now I know that you fear God.”
Genesis 22:12

Sometimes obedience looks like climbing the mountain with unanswered questions. Sometimes faith means trusting God even when silence stretches longer than we expected.

Trusting God When Understanding Fails

Scripture calls us to this kind of trust, especially when the ground beneath us feels unstable.

“Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge Him, and He will make straight your paths. Be not wise in your own eyes; fear the Lord, and turn away from evil.”
Proverbs 3:5–7

These verses are easy to quote when life is orderly. They are far harder to live when plans unravel and prayers seem unanswered.

Trusting God with all our heart means surrendering our need for explanation. It means releasing our grip on outcomes and admitting that our understanding is limited, even when our intentions are pure.

Leaning on our own understanding feels safer. We want timelines. We want clarity. We want reassurance that obedience will lead to immediate confirmation. But Scripture reminds us that understanding is not the foundation of faith. Trust is.

God does not promise an easy path. He promises a straight one.

Straight does not always mean short. Sometimes it means protected. Sometimes it means delayed. Sometimes it means faithful.

Being “not wise in our own eyes” requires humility. It asks us to admit that what we want and what we need are not always the same. Turning away from evil in this context is not only about avoiding sin. It is about turning away from control, impatience, and self-reliance.

When the Unexpected Changes Everything

Here we are now, in a new year, still being led in a direction we did not anticipate.

On December 31, 2025, my wife received a phone call that changed everything. Her older brother, the only son of the woman who took her in when she was just fourteen years old, had passed away.

He left behind a loving mother, a devoted wife, a son, and two high school aged daughters.

We spent New Year’s Eve surrounded by grief, sitting with a family shattered by loss, trying to make sense of a future forever altered by absence.

It was an unexpected turn with consequences of epic proportion for those he loved.

The Eternal Perspective

Moments like these strip away illusion. They remind us how fragile life truly is. How temporary our plans are. How desperately we need God not only when life is joyful, but when it is incomprehensible.

Every day is a blessing. Every conversation, every embrace, every ordinary moment with the people we love is sacred.

We will all leave this world behind. What remains will be the memory of how we lived, how we loved, and how faithfully we trusted God when answers were scarce.

“For if we live, we live to the Lord, and if we die, we die to the Lord.”
Romans 14:8

Choosing Faith Daily

God created us in His image, with love and free will. He does not force our trust. He invites it.

He invites us to lean into Him when circumstances feel unjust, confusing, or painful. He invites us to choose Him daily. To honor Him. To love our families deeply. To care for ourselves and one another with intention and grace.

God’s plan does not always move at the speed of our readiness. Sometimes obedience looks like standing still when everything in us wants to run ahead.

Faith is not trusting because we understand. Faith is trusting because we know who God is.

Patrick, you are deeply missed. I pray you are with Jesus, whole and at peace.

And for the rest of us, may we continue to lean into faith when the unexpected happens, trusting the hand of God even when the path feels unclear, believing that His timing is not late, but purposeful, loving, and perfect.

Praying Faithfully,
Calen