I sat on the idea of writing for years.
Not months. Years. I’d think about it, let it simmer, then let life bury it again. And every time it came back up, I told myself the same thing: not yet. Not the right time. Still waiting.
That word “waiting” carried a lot of weight I never checked. It sounded patient. It sounded faithful. It sounded like something you’d hear in church and nod along to. But if I’m honest, “waiting” wasn’t the right word for what I was doing. I was scared, and I was calling it faith.
The excuses were always ready
I told myself I didn’t have time. I told myself I probably wasn’t creative enough to hold anyone’s attention. And underneath all of it was the real one — I didn’t want to put myself out there and get torn apart for it. The internet doesn’t forgive easy, and faith is personal. Put your faith on a page for strangers to read and some of them will let you know exactly what they think of it.
So I waited. Years of it.
Something shifted
I can’t point to one exact day the fear got smaller. Life just changed me some. Struggles do that — they either shrink you or they toughen you, and by the grace of God, mine toughened me more than they broke me. Somewhere in there, criticism stopped carrying the weight it used to.
At the same time, I was watching the world differently. The news, the noise, the way people treated one another… it stopped making me angry and started making me burdened. I realized I wasn’t the only one carrying something heavy, and staying quiet wasn’t helping anybody. If sharing my struggles could help even one person move a step closer to God, staying comfortable wasn’t worth it anymore.
We kept coming back to one simple conviction — Brian and I had said it to each other for years before there was ever a blog to put it in: if something we wrote helped even one person take one step closer to Christ, then something was better than nothing.
But even with all that shifting under the surface, I still hadn’t moved. I had the reason to write. I didn’t have the reason to finally do it.
Then it stopped being abstract
Brian walked through a season of real injustice — treated unfairly, caught in situations that weren’t handled right, dealing with uncertainty and loss that cut deep. And watching it happen, I recognized parts of the road. Not the exact same path, but close enough that it wasn’t just sympathy anymore. It was recognition.
I didn’t know what to do with it except pray. So I did — hard, and for a long time. Not a quick prayer said in passing. The kind where you keep bringing the same person back to God because you don’t know what else to do for them.
That’s when “waiting” finally showed itself for what it actually was. I wasn’t being patient about my own calling. I was hiding behind a spiritual-sounding word so I didn’t have to risk anything. Watching Brian get knocked down like that, and praying him through it, made staying quiet about my own stall feel worse than getting criticized ever could.
Obedience showed up as a title, then a phone call
My wife and I started talking through what this thing could actually be, and between the two of us, we landed on the name — Faith for Real Life. No lightning bolt. Just a conversation with the person who knows me best.
Not long after, I knew Brian — the man I’d been praying for — had real skill. Web design, sharp thinking, the kind of knowledge I didn’t have. So I asked him if he’d help me build it. He agreed. That’s the whole “God told me to move” moment. No vision, no voice from heaven. Prayer that turned into a title, and a title that turned into asking the one honest question I’d been avoiding for years.
What I didn’t expect was what the writing itself would do for both of us. For me, it’s turned out to be some of the most freeing work I’ve ever done — uncomfortable at times, but honest, and honest has been good for me.
For Brian, it’s been the same, only more so. Writing out his thoughts and emotions, measuring everything against God’s Word, has been tremendously therapeutic for him. Important and liberating at the same time, in his own words. He doesn’t even watch TV anymore.
Neither do I, if I’m honest — I’ll still sit down with my wife for a movie when we get the time, but the news, the noise, all that constant chatter, that’s gone for both of us.
Sometimes waiting really is obedience
Faithful waiting prepares you for obedience.
Fearful waiting protects you from it.
I also don’t want to make the opposite mistake and act like every delay is fear.
There are times when moving ahead would mean forcing something God hasn’t opened yet. You can pray, prepare, learn, and stay faithful while still not having the opportunity, resources, wisdom, or clarity to take the next step.
Real waiting isn’t passive. It prepares you.
Waiting Can Be Preparation
David was anointed king long before he sat on the throne. Joseph carried dreams that took years to make sense. Abraham waited decades for the son God promised him.
They weren’t wasted years.
Someone I love is living that out right now. In a season where he can’t do half of what he wants to do for his sons, he started something called “Letters to My Boys” — writing to them one letter at a time, from a place he never had time for before life got hard. He’d wanted to do it for years. It took losing something to finally make room for it. That’s what faithful waiting looks like. Not sitting still. Filling the time God gave you with something that matters, even before anything about the situation has changed.
Obedience Doesn’t Always Come With Answers
But sometimes the obedience God asks for doesn’t come with proof first. In John 2, Jesus told the servants at the wedding in Cana to fill the stone jars with water. Not after the miracle. Before it. They had no idea what filling those jars would accomplish. He didn’t explain it. He just told them to do it, and they obeyed before they saw anything happen.
That’s the other side of this. Sometimes God isn’t asking you to wait and prepare. He’s asking you to obey before you understand what it’s for.
That’s one difference I’ve started to recognize. Fearful waiting keeps finding reasons not to prepare. Faithful waiting uses the time God has given you. And sometimes faithful obedience means moving before you’ve got a single answer about what happens next.
If you’re praying, learning, preparing, becoming more disciplined, seeking wise counsel, and obeying what God has already made clear, you may genuinely be in a season of waiting.
But if you’ve had the opportunity, the ability, the conviction, and the next step sitting in front of you for years, and the only thing stopping you is fear of what might happen if you move, that’s worth being honest about.
So how do you actually tell the difference?
Here’s what I’ve learned, looking back on years of calling fear “waiting”:
- Fear hides behind spiritual language. “I’m waiting for peace about it” can be true. It can also be a way to never have to answer for staying still. Ask yourself which one it actually is.
- God moves through the practical, not just the dramatic. I didn’t get a sign in the sky. I got a name from a conversation with my wife, and a skill I needed sitting right in front of me, in someone I already trusted. Sometimes obedience just looks like asking the obvious question you’ve been avoiding.
- Watching someone else’s pain can be the push you needed. It’s not selfish to let someone else’s hard season wake you up to your own stalling. Sometimes God uses what’s happening around you to move what’s stuck in you.
What God Has Already Made Clear
James 1:22 says, “But don’t just listen to God’s word. You must do what it says. Otherwise, you are only fooling yourselves.” I’d been listening for years. Nodding along. Agreeing with the idea of it. What I hadn’t done was act.
If you’re waiting on something right now, ask yourself honestly: Is this patience, or is this fear wearing patience’s clothes?
Are you praying, preparing, seeking wisdom, and obeying what God has already made clear?
Or are you asking God for another sign because you don’t like the risk attached to the step already sitting in front of you?
Learning to discern whether God is asking you to wait or asking you to move isn’t about chasing another feeling. It’s about faithfully responding to what He’s already made clear.
Sometimes the sign you’re looking for isn’t a feeling. It’s a person right in front of you, a skill you already have, an opportunity God has opened, or a decision you’ve been avoiding because moving is scarier than staying still.
You don’t need to have the whole road figured out.
You just need to be willing to take the next faithful step.
Something is better than nothing.
Move.
One more thing before I go
When I launched Faith for Real Life, I had no idea how many people God would allow it to reach. In such a short amount of time, we’ve grown to nearly 400 monthly readers, and I’m truly humbled by every one of you.
Whether you’ve read one article or all of them, shared a post with a friend, left an encouraging comment, or simply prayed for this ministry — thank you. Your support means more than you probably realize, and I hope to keep providing worthwhile, biblically grounded content that encourages you in your everyday walk with Christ.
There’s more coming, too — a monthly newsletter, and Lord willing, an Instagram presence. Keep an eye out.
If you want to know more about what we’re trying to accomplish with Faith for Real Life, you can read it on our About page.
