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In Ecclesiastes 3:11, we read that God makes everything beautiful in its time. It is comforting to know that nothing is wasted in God's economy, but all of it will be used for our good and His glory. You're invited to join us for poignant conversations and compelling interviews centered on believing for His beauty in every season.
Hey everybody, welcome back to the podcast. Today, I want to reflect on a sweet principle that my dad, who's now with Jesus, said to me when I was going through something difficult many years ago, and it has just stuck with me. You know how things just stick with you that someone says, well, this one stuck with me. And when I have this principle and belief in view, it has the power to change.
really how I view every moment of my life. So my dad one day when I was bemoaning something that I was going through said, Shinny, which was his pet name for me, Shinny, in times like this, you gotta remember that everything is preparation for the next thing. And in saying that, he wanted to ensure that I remembered that God is always preparing us for what he has for us.
And he uses both the good and what we would consider the bad of our lives to do just that, to prepare us. Look, when we find ourselves in seasons of life that are filled with joy and abundance, well, it's easy to see God's hand at work and even give him credit confidently, like God is good, he's always working. And in those times, it feels natural to trust that God is preparing us for even more blessings and for the good things that he has in store.
So I loved what my dad said that day. But what about the hard things? What about those moments when life takes an unexpected turn, when we face challenges or heartache or uncertainty or even grief, loss? It's in those times that we may struggle to understand how God is using our circumstances to prepare us for what's next. But here's the truth.
Whether we are in a season of celebration or a season of trial, God is always at work. He is always preparing us. And this is where a robust understanding of God's sovereignty is so important, like we've talked about before. Sometimes it's only in hindsight that we can see how the hard things, the confusing things, those things were shaping us, strengthening us, and getting us ready for what was to come.
but they were never outside the sovereignty of God. Those difficult moments are not wasted. They are a crucial part of God's preparation process. They mold us, they refine us, and they prepare us to walk into the next chapter of our lives with greater faith, wisdom, and resilience, having likely learned some really important things along the way. And then,
Those are the things that we can kind of find some meaning to, but what about the things we don't understand at all in the moment? Where we ask God straight up, why are you doing this? Or what are you doing? And it's natural to feel that way. But later, and maybe it's much later, we can look back and see how God was orchestrating every detail, how he was weaving together the good and the bad.
the understood and the mysterious, all to prepare us for his purposes, because he's always preparing us for what he has for us. Now there have been more than a few occasions in my past when I could not for the life of me see how something God had led me into was preparation for anything in the future. Vocationally speaking, I've always been on a church staff and I felt
very early on, like that was what I was supposed to do forever. But about a decade ago, God led me into a season where I was leaving the staff I'd been on at Passion City Church, and I felt unmistakably like he was calling me to prioritize my kids in that season in a greater way. They were much younger, they were in early elementary school and even preschool, one of them.
So at the height of the success in ministry at a thriving church with oodles of kids coming to an awesome environment on Sundays with great volunteers and fun curriculum and all systems go and a wonderful staff team, I felt that unmistakable stirring from the Lord that it was time for a change and that it was specifically around the fact that I was spending so much time programming ministry for everyone else's kids.
that my own kids were getting the leftovers of me. It was at that point that the opportunity arose for me to be on staff at my kids' private Christian school, which was Loganville Christian Academy in Georgia. I would be going there to be the director of student life. And eventually I would go on to be part of the executive leadership team of the school and have a suite almost five years there before getting the call to come to Nashville.
So it was really difficult though in that season for me to understand why I would be leaving something that felt perfect to go to something that didn't frankly. Now all cards on the table initially in that season, I felt like I was getting off course from what I was supposed to be doing because it didn't seem at the outset to be related to what I felt like God had for me, which was a life of ministry and specifically at church.
because that's what I'd always known. That's what my parents did, and that's what I was most connected to. I had dreams of women's ministry, of speaking, of producing events, and this didn't seem close to any of that, and frankly, it seemed like a detour altogether.
how altruistic of me to lay down what I thought I was supposed to be doing in ministry, to be in the day in and day out relationship with my kiddos at their school. Such a sacrifice for me to take a break from my calling to prioritize my kids. I'm sure the Lord was like, okay, sweetheart, whatever you have to tell yourself, but let's calm down just a little bit. Well, looking back now, of course,
I not only see the way that that season prepared me to be helpful to my kids' school here in Tennessee, which I'm able to do even now, but moreover, the way that that season was absolutely crucial in my life. It served as a safe place and safe leadership for God to use to bring about a season of significant refinement for me. I think of that season now as a roughly
five -year boot camp where I cut my teeth in leadership, in difficult conversations, in administration, in executive level decision making, in quick pivoting, in the special opportunities to deal with parents who feel passionately about their kids, in student leadership and engagement, in counseling of difficult situations, but most importantly,
in what it's like to be on the other side of me. My seasoned and kind leaders, Christy and Doug Monda, were further down the road than me, and they were the very people God would use to turn a mirror on me and help me see not only where I was gifted and how God might intend to use those gifts, but also where I needed to grow.
and the ways in which I was diluting my influence due to a lack of emotional awareness and maturity. Being emotionally aware is not the same as being aware. Maturity and emotional awareness, self -knowledge and self -awareness about how we interact with people day in, day out, what it's like when we're quote,
being ourselves and how that feels when it's landing on other people. The difference between the intent of our behavior and the impact of our behavior. These were all things that I had the privilege and frankly the treasure of learning about in that season that I thought was a bit of a detour from what I was supposed to be doing, but instead was right.
on time in God's preparation of me. It was exactly what I needed and it was the preparation season for the next thing. And in God's kindness, do you know I also got to do all those things I'd been hoping for too? I got to produce events, I got to have ministry to women,
That school and Christy specifically helped me launch a ministry to women and I got to minister to moms of students in that season. I got to engage one -on -one and in groups with the students of that school and walk through difficult things that would serve me so well as a pastor in the next season here in Nashville down the road.
It was a season of new beginnings, of dreams that were realized and growth and maturity that just frankly wouldn't have come any other way, but from the friction of refinement. We don't learn the difficult lessons of life, the pivotal lessons of life when all is peachy and rosy. We do not learn much of anything when everything is great.
We learn the most crucial pivotal lessons of life when things are rubbing up against us, sloughing off the rough edges of us. Refinement is by nature a friction process. It must be rubbed off of us. We must be polished to be shining like silver. And so...
I learned a lot in that season about what it looked like, not only to be growing in my gifts, but also to be challenged in the areas that I needed to grow, challenged in things that would dilute my influence going forward, challenged to understand what it's like on the other side of me. And most of all, I realized that ministry isn't just in a church building.
It's anywhere that the people of God are engaged in bringing good to the world. That was a ministry season for me, as sure as any other ministry on a church staff has been. But going into that season, I was looking at it with a completely wrong perspective. I felt like I was leaving ministry, leaving what I was made for, to go and do this thing because God told me to.
I was not wise enough to see 12 years ago or whatever that was that it was a preparation season for me and that so much of what I learned in that season would be critical to the next season. So I just want to say Doug and Christy, you already know you're my favorites, but thank you for being willing to take a chance on this girl and to give me safe harbor and the guardrails that I needed to grow.
It was absolutely preparation for the next thing. Now I could give you guys a hundred more examples of things, both good and painful, that God has used to prepare me, but I don't want the podcast to be that long and neither do you. But here's something as I was preparing this that I think is really important to say.
You know, a few weeks ago, we heard Brandy Naveau's story of God's mercy and provision over her marriage to Michael and the transformational ways that he met them in their marriage through some really difficult days. We talked about restoration and the fact that God is a God of details and order. And I've been thinking a lot about this as I've heard from those of you that have maybe made
poor decisions as we all do and you're experiencing the consequences of those decisions that may be less than pleasurable and you're wondering how God is going to have to pivot to make something beautiful out of what you've done. Many of you responded that Brandy's story was so encouraging to you and that it gave you hope for how God might redeem your season. But I also
sensed so many of us feeling like God has to sometimes pull up plan B in order to prepare us for the next thing now that we've missed the first thing or messed up the first thing. And this is really important. I wrote this when we released Brandy's episode, but I want to say it out loud here because it matters when we're considering the way that God prepares us for the next thing.
And it matters if you've ever found yourself in a situation you were unsure that God could really redeem. Like we know God is Redeemer, but doesn't that seem reserved only for situations that aren't our fault? What about the ones we're in due to our own sin or our own poor choices? For those, do we struggle to grasp a beautiful redemption story that only God could write? How can he prepare us for the next thing?
through something we jacked up all on our own. Perhaps the details of your thing were so contrary to how they should have been that it seems God's only option is a consolation prize redemption. Something far short of what he wanted to do, but alas, he's been left with no other options because we screwed it up. He might make something passable out of the ashes and maybe some would even consider it pretty.
But will it really truly be beautiful? What might it have looked like if he hadn't had to pivot and scatter all the photos of plan A onto the darkroom floor? But if God truly is a God of details and order like Brandy taught us, then there is really never a time when he has missed a detail or succumbed to chaos, is there?
Is there even such a thing as a dark room floor where the way it was supposed to be lays discarded and forgotten? Is there a reality in which we have to settle for God's second best because we didn't have our stuff together at the right time and in the right moment to receive his first best? Well, if God is sovereign and if everything is preparation for the next thing, then is it even possible for us to screw up plan A?
A sovereign God has been ordering the details of your life and mine since before the foundation of the world. This means that he knew the decisions we'd make, the sins we'd commit, and the ways we'd struggle to live out our God -given identities. And yet, he purposed and ordered each of our days anyway and took all that into account.
What I think this means is that there is no plan B. There isn't even a plan A adjacent. There's only plan A, complete with all God knew would be there and all the ways he'd make it all beautiful. So in that reality of a sovereign God who can't be sideswiped by the choices of his children, everything
Everything is preparation for the next thing because He knows what it is and who we'll need to be, what we'll have need to experience, and what we'll have needed to learn when we get there. So whether you're in a season of joy or a season of struggle, hold on to this truth. God is preparing you.
He's equipping you for the next thing, for the next chapter, for the next opportunity, for the next challenge, for the next gift. Where are you right now? What thing is in front of you and you're wondering why? What would it look like for you to surrender that thing as something God is using to prepare you for the next thing? To say God, you're God.
and I'm not, but I can choose to believe you when you say you're working it all for my good. So today, think back to all you've been through, all you've come through and look for the ways God was preparing you then for where you are now and trust that he is no less at work right now than he was then. He is at work in every moment making
everything beautiful in its time and because of that everything is indeed preparation for the next thing and I will see you next time.