Pulled From the Fire

These trials will show that your faith is genuine. It is being tested as fire tests and purifies gold—though your faith is far more precious than mere gold. 1 Peter 1:7

I didn’t ask for the storyline of the last ten to fifteen years of my life.

I didn’t ask for the kind of grief that rearranges your faith. I didn’t ask to watch my child wrestle with addiction. I didn’t ask to pack up and move clear across the country, away from family, familiarity, and everything that once felt like home.

None of this was on my vision board.

If I’m honest, much of this season felt like endurance rather than intention—like holding on, not growing. Survival, not purpose. There were long stretches where I wasn’t asking, “What are You doing, God?” as much as I was whispering, “How do I get through this?”

But, somehow, I did not come out the same.

What surprises me now isn’t the pain itself—it’s what God chose to do with it.

The very places that felt like breaking points became turning points. The nights that left me empty became the places where words finally found their way out of me. My writing didn’t grow from confidence or clarity; it grew from loss, fear, unanswered prayers, and the slow surrender of control.

God didn’t stand at a distance, waiting for me to pull myself together or figure things out. He reached directly into the mess—into the ache of motherhood, the loneliness of starting over, the weight of loving someone you cannot fix—and He began pulling something new from it.

Purpose.

Not the kind that feels shiny or impressive. The kind that feels honest. Earned. Refined.

Scripture reminds us that God works all things together for good—not because all things are good, but because He is (Romans 8:28). I’ve learned that “together” often looks like pain and growth existing side by side. Grief and gratitude. Loss and becoming.

I wouldn’t choose the road that led me here. But I can see now that God never wasted a step of it.

He shaped my compassion. He deepened my faith. He gave me words where I once only had tears.

And He is still doing it.

If you’re in a season you didn’t ask for—one marked by struggle, change, or quiet heartbreak—this may not be the chapter where everything makes sense yet. But it may be the chapter where God is doing His deepest work.

He has a way of reaching into our pain and pulling out purpose we never could have imagined.

You are loved!