As I have gotten older, I find myself looking back over the long road of life, watching the memories rise like mile markers behind me, and asking a hard and honest question: What does it take to stop a person from doing what God has called them to do? Some are called to build, to lead, and to do great things the world can see. Others are called to pray, to serve quietly, and to uphold the work of God in ways that may never receive applause. But the calling is sacred either way, because it comes from Him.
I have learned that giving up on the call of God is rarely loud or dramatic. Most of the time, it happens slowly, almost unnoticed, like a fire that fades one ember at a time. It begins the moment I stop trusting and start trying to control. When the waiting grows heavy, when the obstacles pile up, when the outcome feels uncertain, I reach for my own strength instead of resting in God’s hands. And without realizing it, I begin to trade surrender for striving.
Age has a way of clearing the fog. Looking back, I can see that the great people of faith were not great because life was easy. They were great because they expected hardship, and they kept moving toward God anyway. They understood that weakness offered with willingness is not a disqualification, but the very place where God’s power can take root and rise.
And I have learned something else over the years: faith is only found in hearing. When God gives a call, He rarely explains the hardships that will come with it. He does not map out the whole road. He does not warn us of every delay, every disappointment, every battle we will face along the way. That is not how faith works. Faith does not come from seeing the whole journey. Faith comes from hearing the voice of God and stepping forward anyway.
Faith begins when God speaks, and we choose to believe Him. It is trusting what He has said even when everything around us seems to say otherwise. The world looks at circumstances, but faith listens for the voice of the One who cannot lie.
As Corrie ten Boom once said, “Never be afraid to trust an unknown future to a known God.”
If God showed us every struggle in advance, we might never take the first step. Instead, He gives us His Word, and He asks us to walk forward one step at a time. Not by sight. Not by certainty. But by trust.
Scripture reminds us of this truth:
“For we walk by faith, not by sight.” (2 Cor. 5:7)
Now, as an old man reflecting on the years behind me, I realize the calling was never mine to carry alone. God never asked me to control the journey. He asked me to obey, to trust, and to surrender the results into His hands.
And even today, with more years behind me than ahead, I am still learning that surrender is where faith truly begins.