The Gift of a Hidden Season: Trusting God’s Plan
When we moved across the country with a preschooler and a baby struggling with serious medical issues, I found myself in a very narrow season of life. My days were filled with simply doing the next thing—making sure the kids were fed and clothed, setting up utilities in our new home, figuring out where the grocery store was, and running to hardware stores for items we didn’t know we needed.
As a previous work-outside-the-home mom, I found myself in an internal near-panic over the narrowness of my life. In such a season of transition and change, my children needed me deeply. My husband, who was settling into a new pastoral position, was busy with church meetings and staff management. My son’s medical needs dominated the first year of his life, and required a great deal of time, planning, and prayer.
My life, while not actually quiet with two kids, felt very quiet externally. I felt hidden and unseen. I wasn’t involved in any ministries at church yet. I wasn’t writing. I didn’t know our congregation. And I couldn’t quite shake the nagging fear that I was missing out. It was difficult for me to trust that working at these things—things that no one else saw or praised—was the most valuable thing I could be doing. I struggled to rejoice in Paul’s exhortation to “work heartily, as for the Lord” in “whatever” I was doing (Col. 3:23-24). Needing to trust that I was ultimately serving the Lord through the narrowness of my responsibilities challenged my internal markers and vision of success.
The World’s Version of Success
The world spinning around us praises being busy, being successful, and being self-sufficient. When you’re busy, it’s implied that you’re also important. When you’re successful, it’s implied that you’re worthy. When you’re self-sufficient, it’s implied that you’re capable.
But what happens when, in the Lord’s sovereignty, we find ourselves in a season of hiddenness, with no external markers of success or capability? Do we accept our limitations and obscurity as a gift from him, or as something to escape or overcome?
Initially, I fought against my limitations. I struggled to find contentment. But through Bible study, prayer, Christian counseling, and Christian community, I began to see my season for what it was: a gift of grace from the Lord.
Here are three ways to better understand and accept the gift of a hidden season.
1. Trust God’s sovereignty over every season of life.
The Lord holds our lives in his hands, and there is nothing that he doesn’t see or understand. He knows what’s best for us, and he’s always working things for our good and his glory.[1] When we find ourselves in a hidden season, when the needs of our family, our work, or our own souls keep us from moving outward, it’s a gift to remember that the Lord doesn’t look at us the way other people do.[2]
God’s main goal for us in this life is our sanctification.[3] And his means of helping us grow in holiness don’t always (or often) align with the world’s aims or our expectations. But we can trust that when we’re being pulled back from external goals, it’s because the Lord is doing good spiritual work in our hearts.
2. Trust that your identity in Christ is secure.
Although it can feel challenging to untangle our worth from the work that the world sees, the undeniable truth is that our value and identity in Christ is unshakeable—and it’s not based on our work, but on the work of Christ! His perfect life, death, and resurrection did all the work necessary to gain us a place as “children of God” (1 John 3:1). Because of his good work, we are “chosen” (1 Pet. 2:9), and our truest life is “hidden with Christ in God” (Col. 3:3).
Our worth and value have never been in what we do or don’t do, or in how our children behave or don’t behave, but in who Christ is and what he has accomplished. In hidden seasons, we have a rich opportunity to allow our lack of earthly productivity to point us back to the glorious gift of acceptance and identity in Christ.
3. Trust the body of Christ to uphold you.
Everyone who believes in Christ is a member of his body, and our particular position in the body is unique and valuable.[4] But there are seasons when some body parts need to recuperate and heal, and the rest of the body sends reinforcements to care for the part that’s in need.
If you find yourself in a season of life when you can’t give to others, allow the church to care for you. Don’t shy away from receiving help, encouragement, and prayer from other believers. And remember that unless you tell them, others may not know that you need that help or encouragement. Reach out to your small group, pastor, or friend, and let them know that you need support. We are made to help each other, and it’s a gift to others in the church to allow them to love and care for you. When your season shifts, you’ll want to do the same for them.
The lack of external responsibilities in my hidden season gave me space to focus on being with Christ rather than doing things in his name. That time and intentionality in pursuing Christ led to renewed intimacy with him and a fresh depth of trust in his plans for me and our family.
No matter where you find yourself in life, the call is always to trust in the Lord; in one way or another, this season is a gift. Embrace it as such and find the treasure of deeper relationship with him.
[1] Romans 8:28
[2] 1 Samuel 16:7
[3] 1 Thessalonians 4:3
[4] 1 Corinthians 12
