Did God Say It, or Did I Assume It?

For many years, I thought there was one specific path God had already chosen for my life, and my responsibility was to somehow discover it.

The right career.
The right place to live.
The right person to marry.
The right assignment.

And if I made the wrong choice, perhaps I could step outside of God's plan for my life.

But I have started questioning that way of thinking.

If every major decision has already been privately selected by God, but He doesn't simply tell us what those decisions are, then life begins to feel like a spiritual escape room. We spend years looking for clues, interpreting signs, analyzing dreams, listening to prophecies, and wondering whether we have decoded the correct answer.

Where does free will fit into that?

I am beginning to think mature faith may look less like trying to discover a secret blueprint and more like learning how to make wise, responsible choices while trusting God to be with me in all of them.

When Cultural Assumptions Become Spiritual Language

This has also made me think differently about prophecy.

Sometimes what sounds like prophecy may actually be a cultural assumption dressed in spiritual language.

A person can look at your age, gender, marital status, education, personality, or circumstances and already have an idea of what someone "like you" is supposed to do.

Then that expectation gets presented as revelation.

The person may sound incredibly certain.

But certainty is not the same thing as knowledge.

Sometimes a person isn't reading your life at all.

They are filling you into a template.

For example, if a culture strongly believes that women should marry, have children, or pursue certain roles, someone may look at a young, unmarried woman and confidently tell her, "God is going to give you a husband."

But how does he know?

Is that revelation?

Or is marriage simply what he expects women to do?

The distinction matters because once spiritual authority is attached to an ordinary cultural expectation, questioning the expectation can begin to feel like questioning God.

How Stereotypes Become Prophecy

This is where stereotypes can become prophecy.

First, there is an assumption about the kind of life a person is supposed to live, based on stereotypes the prophet may unknowingly carry.

Then the assumption is spiritualized.

Then the person receiving the prophecy begins organizing her decisions around it.

She waits.

She searches for signs.

She interprets opportunities through the prophecy.

She may reject possibilities that don't seem to fit it.

Years later, if her life resembles what was predicted, everyone can look back and say, "See? The prophecy came true."

But there is another possibility worth considering:

Did the prophecy predict the future, or did it help shape the future?

That is a question I think we should be willing to ask.

A prophecy can potentially become self-reinforcing when a person spends years making decisions under its influence. That doesn't necessarily prove the original message was false. But it does mean the eventual outcome, by itself, cannot always prove that the prediction came directly from God.

Vocation Is Not the Same as a Specific Assignment

Another distinction I am learning to make is between vocation and assignment.

A person may genuinely have a calling to teach.

However, that doesn't necessarily mean God has selected one particular school where that person must teach.

Someone may have a calling to help people.

That doesn't necessarily mean there is one specific profession hidden somewhere that she must discover.

Someone may have a gift for writing.

That doesn't necessarily mean there is one particular book God has already written into her destiny and she must figure out what it is.

The broader calling can remain while the specific expression of that calling changes throughout a person's life.

That gives us room to grow.

It gives us room to choose.

It even gives us room to change our minds.

Question Everything, Including Certainty

I don't mean that we should become cynical about everything spiritual. I mean that discernment should include the freedom to ask questions.

How does this person know this?

Is this actually revelation, or could it be an assumption?

Would this prediction have been made about someone of a different gender, culture, age, or social class?

Is this describing something unique about my life, or something society already expects people like me to do?

Those questions don't have to weaken faith.

They can refine it.

Faith isn't always about finding the one correct door.

Sometimes it is having the wisdom to choose a door and trusting God enough to walk through it.

Reducing stressors before beginning your workday

“Let all things be done decently and in order.”
1 Corinthians 14:40

There is something peaceful about having things in order. As I come off summer vacation and begin another school year of teaching, I have been thinking about some of the unnecessary stress that can happen before my workday even begins. One thing I want to work on this school year is creating calmer, more organized mornings.

For me, that starts the night before.

I can have my clothes prepared instead of milling around in the morning trying to figure out what to wear. I can have a plan for my hair instead of struggling with it when I should be getting ready to leave. I can make sure my lesson plans, work materials, and anything else I need are ready to go. I can also prepare and pack my lunch the night before.

These may seem like little things, but little things take time. When several of them pile up in one morning, suddenly I am looking at the clock wondering where the time went.

Proverbs 21:5 says:

“The plans of the diligent lead surely to abundance, but everyone who is hasty comes only to poverty.”

That word hasty stands out to me because rushing has been one of my problems.

I have realized that racing to work in the morning affects me both physically and mentally. When I leave home pressed for time, I start getting aggravated with people who are driving slowly because now I am trying to make up for the minutes I lost at home. I may feel tempted to speed, unnecessarily pass someone, or make other hasty decisions on the road that I normally wouldn't make.

A few minutes aren't worth all of that.

Even if I manage to make it to work on time, I have already stressed myself out before my students have even entered my classroom.

 I don't want to walk through the door already frazzled from a morning of rushing.

The interesting thing is that I used to think my commute was the problem.

When I lived about 45 minutes away from work, I thought, Of course I'm always rushing. I live so far away. Then I moved closer, and my commute dropped to about 17 minutes.

Yet somehow, I still found myself rushing.

Now my job has moved even closer, only 5 minutes away, and that has made me realize that simply living closer isn't going to change anything if I carry the same morning habits with me.

I don't want the extra time I have gained from a shorter commute to simply turn into extra time to mill around the house.

The real issue wasn't necessarily how far I lived from work. It was what I was doing with my time before I left.

Psalm 90:12 says:

“Teach us to number our days, that we may gain a heart of wisdom.”

I think there is wisdom in learning how to use the time I already have. I have certainly had mornings when I prayed, “Lord, please help me get there on time.” But I am also realizing that I have a part to play in creating the kind of morning I am praying for.

I can prepare my clothes the night before. I can pack my lunch. I can get my work materials together. I can think ahead about my hair. I can give myself enough time to leave home without racing against the clock.

This school year, I want to work on building those habits.

My commute has gone from 45 minutes, to 17 minutes, to 5 minutes. That's a gift of time, and I don't want to waste it by simply finding new ways to run late.

Sometimes a more peaceful morning isn't about getting more time.

Sometimes it's about creating more order with the time I already have.

Bridge Provision: Receiving the Blessing and Stewarding it Wisely

Disclaimer: The names, characters, financial amounts, and circumstances presented in this article are fictional and are being used solely to illustrate the spiritual and practical principles of provision and stewardship.

Today, I want to talk about bridge provision and what it means to be a good steward over what God provides.

What Is Bridge Provision?

Bridge provision is the help that carries someone through a temporary financial gap. It arrives when a more permanent solution is already on the way, but there is still a waiting period that must be endured.

The employment opportunity has been secured, but the first paycheck has not arrived. The application has been approved, but the funds have not yet been released. The next source of income is visible, but there are still groceries to purchase, bills to pay, and transportation expenses to cover in the meantime.

Bridge provision does not necessarily resolve every long-term financial concern. Its purpose is to provide enough support to help someone safely cross from one season into the next.

Philippians 4:19 reminds us:

“But my God shall supply all your need according to his riches in glory by Christ Jesus.”

God’s provision may appear through a miracle that cannot easily be explained, but it can also arrive through ordinary channels: a refund, an insurance reimbursement, a corrected bill, an employment opportunity, a gift, or money that was already owed.

The fact that provision comes through a natural process does not make it any less meaningful.

Ron and Jennifer’s Financial Gap

Consider a couple named Ron and Jennifer.

Ron had been unemployed for some time, leaving Jennifer to carry most of the household’s financial responsibilities. The household had been surviving, but their resources were stretched thin.

Eventually, Ron secured a new job and began working in the middle of the month. This was an answer to prayer and an important step toward greater financial stability.

However, there was still a problem.

Ron’s first paycheck would not arrive for two weeks. Although the job had been secured and new income was on the way, regular household expenses were still due.

They were caught in a temporary gap.

Then, an unexpected check arrived in the mail from their natural gas utility company.

The company had completed its annual reconciliation of the household’s budget-billing plan. During the review, it discovered that Ron and Jennifer had paid substantially more throughout the year than the actual cost of the natural gas they had used.

Under the utility company’s policy, credit balances above a certain amount were automatically refunded following the annual reconciliation. Because the household had accumulated a credit of $507, the company issued a refund check.

Ron and Jennifer had not requested the refund or known that it was coming.

Yet the check arrived at exactly the time it was needed.

God Often Works Through Ordinary Channels

This is a clear example of bridge provision, help arriving at the right moment to carry a household from one side of a temporary financial gap to the other.

We sometimes hear testimonies about someone receiving an “unexpected check in the mail,” as though the money appeared without any identifiable source. In reality, the check may have come from a tax adjustment, a corrected insurance claim, a utility refund, a payroll correction, or another legitimate source.

That does not make it any less of a blessing.

God often works through natural processes, established systems, human decisions, and ordinary circumstances.

When Elijah needed food during a famine, God used ravens to bring him bread and meat. Later, God provided for Elijah through a widow who had only a small amount of flour and oil remaining. The methods were different, but the source was still God. See 1 Kings 17:2–16.

Sometimes God creates something that was not previously there. At other times, He reveals, redirects, releases, or returns something that already exists.

In Ron and Jennifer’s case, the $500 was technically their own money. They had paid more than they owed, and the utility company returned the excess.

However, they had not known that the credit existed. They had not included it in their financial planning, and they had not expected it to arrive during this particular season.

Its timing transformed an ordinary refund into bridge provision.

Provision Creates a Stewardship Decision

Once the check arrived, Ron and Jennifer had an important choice to make:

How would they steward the $507?

The money was enough to help carry them until Ron received his first paycheck, but only if they managed it carefully.

They could not treat the refund as extra spending money simply because it had arrived unexpectedly. It had a purpose. It was meant to help cover the financial gap.

First Corinthians 4:2 says:

“Moreover, it is required in stewards, that a man be found faithful.”

A steward is someone entrusted with something that belongs to another. From a biblical perspective, everything we possess ultimately belongs to God, and we are responsible for how we manage it.

Psalm 24:1 declares:

“The earth is the Lord’s, and the fulness thereof; the world, and they that dwell therein.”

Stewardship requires us to recognize that provision is not merely something to receive. It is also something to protect, direct, and use with wisdom.

Giving Every Dollar an Assignment

Before spending the refund, Ron and Jennifer would need to examine their most urgent needs.

Perhaps the $500 could be divided among groceries, transportation, medication, and a household bill. They might also reserve a small amount for an unexpected expense that could arise before the first paycheck arrived.

The point would not be to create a perfect budget. The goal would be to give the money a clear assignment before convenience, impulse, or emotion consumed it.

Proverbs 21:5 teaches:

“The thoughts of the diligent tend only to plenteousness; but of every one that is hasty only to want.”

Careful planning does not reflect a lack of faith. Planning can be one of the ways we honor the provision God has given us.

Jesus also spoke about counting the cost before beginning a project:

“For which of you, intending to build a tower, sitteth not down first, and counteth the cost?”
—Luke 14:28

Although this passage concerns discipleship, it also reflects a broader principle of wisdom: responsible people pause, assess what they have, and consider what will be required.

Bridge Provision Is Not the Same as Excess

One danger of receiving unexpected money is that it can feel like a financial bonus rather than a temporary resource with a specific purpose.

Because the money was not part of Ron and Jennifer’s regular income, they might be tempted to spend it on something they had wanted but postponed. They might view it as an opportunity to relax their financial boundaries.

However, bridge provision is not necessarily excess.

It is provision with an assignment.

A bridge is designed to help someone cross a gap. If the resources are consumed before the journey is complete, the person may find themselves stranded before reaching the other side.

This is why discernment is important.

Ron and Jennifer would need to distinguish between what was necessary, what was helpful, and what could wait.

Proverbs 27:23 instructs:

“Be thou diligent to know the state of thy flocks, and look well to thy herds.”

In biblical times, livestock represented wealth, provision, and economic security. Today, the principle still applies. We should understand the condition of our finances, monitor our resources, and remain aware of where our money is going.

Stewardship Requires Unity

Because Ron and Jennifer share a household, they must also agree on how the bridge provision will be used.

One person cannot treat the money as emergency provision while the other treats it as disposable income. They need a shared understanding of the household’s priorities.

Financial unity does not mean that two people will automatically agree about every purchase. It means that they are willing to communicate honestly, consider the needs of the entire household, and make decisions together.

Amos 3:3 asks:

“Can two walk together, except they be agreed?”

Agreement does not require identical personalities or identical attitudes toward money. However, it does require communication, cooperation, and a willingness to make temporary sacrifices for a shared goal.

Administrative Burden and Shadow Work: Why Simple Tasks Feel So Complicated

I am piggybacking on my previous post, “Why Does Everything Require So Much Follow-Up?” Researching this topic gave me language for experiences I have witnessed in my own life and in the lives of friends and family.

I already knew it was a thing, but I did not realize these experiences had been studied and recognized as legitimate organizational problems.

Administrative Burden

One term that was new to me was administrative burden. Researchers use this term to describe the learning, compliance, and psychological costs people experience while trying to access services or complete official processes.¹

Have you ever called a company with a simple question about a bill, insurance account, or another service, only to be sent on a merry-go-round of automated responses?

Press 1 for your account balance.
Press 2 for billing questions.
Press 3 for technical support.
Press 4 to return to the main menu.

You select an option and are given another series of commands. You continue pressing numbers and navigating menus until, after exhausting nearly every option, you are finally connected to an actual person, assuming the system has not disconnected the call first.

I once encountered an automated system that was so difficult to navigate that I searched online and found a Reddit thread explaining exactly what to say to bypass it and reach a human being.

Things should not be that complicated.

A customer should not have to research secret commands simply to speak with someone about a service they are already paying for.

Shadow Work

Another term I had never heard before was shadow work. Social critic Ivan Illich used the term to describe unpaid activities that support the formal economy. Today, it is also used to describe labor shifted from organizations to customers through self-service systems, automated technology, and digital platforms.²

Have you ever felt as though you were doing someone else’s job?

Customers are increasingly expected to troubleshoot their own accounts, upload and organize documents, scan their own purchases, track requests, navigate complicated portals, and correct administrative errors.

Work that was once handled by a trained employee now requires the customer to become an unpaid administrative assistant.

Technology was supposed to make life easier, and in many ways it has. However, convenience for an organization can create additional work for the customer.

A company may save time and money by replacing employees with automated systems, but the administrative labor does not disappear. It is simply transferred to the person attempting to use the service.

Footnotes

1. Donald Moynihan, Pamela Herd, and Hope Harvey, “Administrative Burden: Learning, Psychological, and Compliance Costs in Citizen-State Interactions,” Journal of Public Administration Research and Theory. ↩

2. Ivan Illich, Shadow Work, which examines unpaid labor that supports and complements the formal economy. ↩

Why Does Everything Require So Much Follow-Up?

Disclaimer: All names, workplaces, companies, and identifying details in this post have been fictionalized to protect privacy. Any resemblance to actual people or organizations is purely coincidental.

Lately, Angela has noticed what feels like a growing lack of communication, competence, and follow-through.

She recently contacted Greenwood Property Services about a minor electrical installation in her apartment. She was told someone would follow up, but more than a week passed without an update. Even after calling twice, she still did not know whether the request had been reviewed or assigned.

Similarly, when Danielle Carter was injured while working at Brighton Family Services, she had to locate forms and navigate much of the workplace-injury process herself instead of receiving clear guidance.

Why does the person requesting assistance increasingly have to become the coordinator, researcher, record keeper, and follow-up manager?

What Is This Called?

One term is administrative burden. It describes the time, effort, confusion, and emotional strain people experience while trying to access services or complete official processes.¹

Another term is shadow work, unpaid labor that organizations shift onto customers, employees, patients, and tenants. People now schedule appointments, upload documents, track requests, correct errors, and coordinate communication that employees once handled.²

There is also diffusion of responsibility. Several people may participate in a process, but no one takes ownership of the final result.³

I also think of it as responsibility leakage: the organization is technically responsible, but the work gradually leaks back onto the person asking for help.

Why Is This Happening?

Organizations Are Operating Too Lean

Many organizations expect fewer employees to manage larger workloads. Human resources may be responsible for payroll, benefits, hiring, medical leave, injuries, and compliance. Property managers may handle maintenance, rent, inspections, contractors, and tenant concerns.

Heavy workloads and inadequate support can increase burnout, mistakes, and poor communication.⁴

High Turnover Weakens Knowledge

When experienced employees leave, organizations lose institutional knowledge. New workers may know how to enter a request into a system without understanding how to move it toward completion.⁵

They know how to open the ticket, but not how to own the process.

Work Is Too Fragmented

One person answers the telephone, another enters the request, a manager approves it, and someone else contacts a contractor.

Each person may complete a small task while assuming someone else will handle the rest. The customer becomes the only person following the entire situation.

Technology Creates the Appearance of Progress

A request can receive a ticket number, an automated reply, and several status updates without anyone actually resolving the issue.

Technology works well when it supports competent employees. It works poorly when it replaces judgment, communication, and accountability.

Activity Is Measured Instead of Results

Employees may be judged by how many emails they answer or tickets they close rather than whether the underlying problem is solved.

A request may look completed inside the system while remaining unresolved in real life.

Why Does the Work Fall Back on the Individual?

The person needing help has the greatest motivation to see the process completed.

The organization can forget the request and continue operating. The tenant, employee, customer, or patient cannot because the consequences affect their home, health, income, or safety.

That imbalance forces responsible people to keep calling, documenting, correcting, and escalating.

Eventually, “You have to advocate for yourself” begins to sound like:

Do everyone else’s job in addition to your own.

No One is Asking for Perfection

Most people understand that delays happen. What makes the experience exhausting is the silence and lack of ownership.

A functioning organization should be able to say:

“We received your request.”
“This person is handling it.”
“We are waiting for approval.”
“You will receive another update by Friday.”

People are not demanding perfection. They are asking for basic communication, accountability, and follow-through.

Someone should receive the request.
Someone should own the process.
Someone should explain what happens next.
And someone should make sure it is completed.

The goal is simply for systems to function like well-oiled machines again.

Footnotes

1. Donald Moynihan, Pamela Herd, and Hope Harvey describe administrative burden through the learning, psychological, and compliance costs people experience while interacting with institutions. (Oxford Academic) ↩

2. Shadow work includes tasks transferred from businesses to customers through self-service systems and technology. (Financial Times) ↩

3. Diffusion of responsibility occurs when shared accountability reduces individual ownership. (PubMed) ↩

4. Excessive workloads and inadequate support can contribute to burnout, reduced productivity, and mistakes. (American Psychological Association) ↩

5. Employee turnover can result in the loss of institutional knowledge and specialized expertise. (U.S. Government Accountability Office) ↩

Celebrity Without the Mystique

As a sociologist, I often find myself wondering what our obsession with celebrity life reveals about our culture. I can remember being a teenager and having crushes on members of popular male groups. The only ways I could see them were by reading about them in magazines, watching their interviews on BET and MTV, and hanging posters of them on my bedroom walls.

I was too young to attend their concerts because much of their music was intended for an adult audience. I remember being in Atlanta for summer vacation when I was around thirteen years old and secretly hoping that I might run into one particular celebrity. In my imagination, he was my boyfriend. However, even then, I understood that it was simply a fun teenage fantasy.

The History of Stardom

However, the traditional mystique surrounding celebrity has weakened. Celebrities are more visible and appear more accessible than ever before. Through social media, artists can communicate directly with followers, share portions of their everyday lives, seek immediate feedback, and invite audiences to participate in conversations involving releases, merchandise, performances, possible tour locations, and other aspects of their careers.¹

This change did not occur through technology alone, nor was it the result of one coordinated decision by the entertainment industry. It developed through a combination of changing media technologies, business incentives, audience expectations, and deliberate branding strategies.²

Celebrity images have always been constructed. During the Hollywood studio era, studios and publicists carefully controlled how stars were photographed, interviewed, promoted, and presented to the public. Limited access helped preserve distance, and that distance contributed to the fascination and mystique surrounding celebrity.³

Social media introduced a different model. Today, public figures are often expected to remain continuously visible, communicate directly with followers, and reveal enough of their personalities and everyday lives to appear authentic. They may share themselves at home, without elaborate styling, joking with family members, discussing personal struggles, or asking followers for their opinions.⁴

Researchers have described this kind of work through concepts such as self-branding and relational labor. Even content that appears casual or spontaneous may be selectively chosen to communicate familiarity and authenticity. Researcher Crystal Abidin uses the term calibrated amateurism to describe the work involved in producing content that appears raw, spontaneous, or unpolished, even when that presentation has been carefully constructed.⁵ This does not mean that every personal moment is false. It means that relatability can be both genuine and strategically useful.

In the earlier celebrity model, carefully maintained distance helped sustain fascination. In the social-media model, familiarity helps sustain engagement. Relatability has not replaced glamour, wealth, or status; instead, it has been added to them. The modern celebrity must often appear extraordinary enough to attract attention, yet familiar enough to make followers feel personally connected.

Footnotes

1. Nancy K. Baym, Playing to the Crowd: Musicians, Audiences, and the Intimate Work of Connection (New York: New York University Press, 2018), particularly the chapters “Platforms” and “Participatory Boundaries.” Baym examines how social-media platforms changed the terms of interaction between musicians and audiences and how fans participate through promotion, funding, contests, and other forms of fan labor.

2. Nancy K. Baym, Playing to the Crowd; and Alice E. Marwick, Status Update: Celebrity, Publicity, and Branding in the Social Media Age (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2013). Baym examines the economic and relational pressure placed on workers to connect continually with audiences, while Marwick analyzes self-branding, status seeking, life-streaming, and microcelebrity within social-media culture.

3. Paul McDonald, The Star System: Hollywood’s Production of Popular Identities (London: Wallflower Press, 2000). McDonald traces how the American film industry developed, organized, promoted, and sold star identities throughout different periods of Hollywood history.

4. Nancy K. Baym, Playing to the Crowd, particularly “Relational Boundaries.” Baym describes the pressure musicians experience when artists and audiences can remain in contact throughout the day and when performers are expected to demonstrate an intimate form of authenticity.

5. Alice E. Marwick, Status Update; Nancy K. Baym, Playing to the Crowd; and Crystal Abidin, “#familygoals: Family Influencers, Calibrated Amateurism, and Justifying Young Digital Labor,” Social Media + Society 3, no. 2 (2017). Abidin defines calibrated amateurism as the labor involved in creating an apparently casual, raw, or amateur aesthetic within the attention economy.

The God Who Rearranges Our Life

I have seen that God is the God who rearranges things.

So often, I become worried when I cannot see the final outcome. I look at the circumstances in front of me, calculate what appears possible, and wonder how everything will work out.

Yet time after time, God reminds me that the situation I see today is not necessarily the situation that will remain tomorrow.

The pieces can move.

Schedules can change.

Doors can open.

Circumstances can rearrange themselves in ways I could not have predicted.

The Bible says:

“Trust in the Lord with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding.
In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths.”
—Proverbs 3:5–6

Our understanding is limited to what we can presently see. God, however, sees the entire path. He knows which doors will open, which conversations will take place, and which circumstances will change.

I have witnessed this on two recent occasions.

Uche’s Arrival in America

The first situation involved Uche’s immigration journey from Nigeria to the United States.

There were so many unanswered questions surrounding his arrival. With the possibility of the travel ban, I worried about whether he would make it into the country in time.

I could not see how everything would fall into place.

However, God was already arranging the details.

Even Uche’s embassy interview was rescheduled. The timing shifted, the necessary doors opened, and he was able to arrive in America at the right time.

Isaiah 45:2 says:

“I will go before thee, and make the crooked places straight: I will break in pieces the gates of brass, and cut in sunder the bars of iron.”

That Scripture reminds me that God can go ahead of us into places we have not yet reached. He can prepare the path before we even understand what needs to happen.

What once felt uncertain eventually became our daily reality.

Uche is here.

We are living together as husband and wife.

The breakthrough I once struggled to imagine is now the life I wake up to every day.

Psalm 126:3 says:

“The Lord hath done great things for us; whereof we are glad.”

Sometimes we pray for something for so long that it feels almost impossible to imagine ourselves actually living inside the answered prayer. Then one day, the breakthrough becomes normal life.

The Job That Initially Did Not Fit

The second situation involved Uche finding a job while attending school full time.

He found a position at a factory, but when we first learned the work hours, the schedule did not appear feasible.

I could not understand how he would work those hours, attend school, complete his responsibilities, and still make it home at a reasonable time.

From what I could see, the job simply did not fit.

I even told him to forget about it and begin searching for something else.

However, the factory continued contacting him, and Uche stayed in communication with them. Instead of closing the door immediately, he allowed the conversation to continue.

Then the circumstances began to rearrange themselves.

The factory adjusted his work schedule to make it more convenient for him. His school schedule also worked out in a way that allowed him to leave earlier than expected.

Now he is able to work, attend school, and return home around 9:30 in the evening.

What initially looked impossible now works beautifully.

Romans 8:28 says:

“And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose.”

All things working together does not always mean that every detail begins perfectly. Sometimes it means that several separate pieces eventually move into the right position.

The job existed.

The school schedule existed.

The factory’s original hours existed.

At first, the pieces did not seem compatible. But after the schedules were adjusted, everything began working together.

I Did Not Have All the Information

These experiences taught me something important: anxiety often asks me to predict the future using incomplete information.

I was trying to determine the outcome before all the pieces had finished moving.

When I looked at Uche’s immigration journey, I did not know that the embassy appointment would be rescheduled in his favor.

When I looked at the factory job, I did not know that the company would be willing to adjust his hours.

I was trying to solve the future using only the details available in the present.

But God was not limited to the information I had.

He could move people, change schedules, open doors, create flexibility, and arrange circumstances that I did not even know were negotiable.

Jeremiah 33:3 says:

“Call unto me, and I will answer thee, and shew thee great and mighty things, which thou knowest not.”

There will always be things we do not know yet.

There may be options we have not considered, people willing to cooperate, or solutions that have not yet been revealed.

Our inability to see the answer does not mean that an answer is unavailable.

The Current Arrangement May Not Be Final

One of the greatest lessons I am learning is that the current arrangement is not always the final arrangement.

The schedule in front of me may change.

The obstacle in front of me may move.

The door that appears closed may open through a route I did not expect.

Isaiah 43:19 says:

“Behold, I will do a new thing; now it shall spring forth; shall ye not know it?
I will even make a way in the wilderness, and rivers in the desert.”

A wilderness does not naturally contain a road, and a desert does not naturally contain a river. Yet God speaks of creating both.

That means the absence of an obvious path does not mean there is no path.

Sometimes the way is still being made.