Trust

I Don’t Think God Is in a Hurry

/ Baylee Snelling / 1 Comment

I’ve been thinking about how often I find myself in a hurry.

A hurry to understand.

A hurry to heal.

A hurry to know what’s next.

A hurry to become the person I hope I’ll be.

And then I read through Scripture.

God doesn’t seem to be in a hurry.

He spends years preparing people for the very thing He promised them.

He works through seasons that look quiet.

He allows waiting that feels uncomfortable.

Not because He’s absent.

But because He’s never rushed what He intends to make lasting.

I wonder how much of my frustration comes from expecting God to work on my timeline instead of trusting His.

Because if I’m honest, I usually want answers more quickly than I want wisdom.

I want outcomes more quickly than I want transformation.

But God seems far more interested in forming hearts than shortening timelines.

And strangely…

there’s peace in that.

Not because I suddenly understand everything.

But because I’m slowly learning that God’s pace has never been a reflection of His love.

Only His wisdom.

“He has made everything beautiful in its time.”
— Ecclesiastes 3:11 (NIV)

If It Isn’t Good, Then It Isn’t Over

/ Baylee Snelling / 2 Comments

I’ll never forget a conversation I had with a family member at the beginning of one of the darkest seasons of my life.

She looked at me and said,

“One thing that has always helped me is remembering this: if it isn’t good, then it isn’t over.”

Those weren’t the exact words of Scripture.

But they pointed me back to the God of Scripture.

And they’ve stayed with me ever since.

At first, I held onto those words because I desperately wanted my circumstances to change.

I needed to believe that pain wasn’t the final chapter.

But over the years, they’ve come to mean something even deeper.

Sometimes life is wonderfully good.

So good that we silently wish it could stay exactly as it is.

A table full of people you love.

A child wrapped around your neck.

A sunset that makes you stop walking.

A day you wish you could live twice.

And yet, even those moments aren’t the end of the story.

Because as beautiful as this life can be…

it’s only a glimpse.

Scripture doesn’t promise us a perfect life here.

It promises something even greater.

A day when everything broken will finally be made whole.

A day when sorrow will have no place.

A day when death itself will be swallowed up forever.

So whether today feels heavy or beautiful, I find comfort in the same truth.

God isn’t finished.

And the best chapter has always been the one still to come.

“He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain…”
— Revelation 21:4 (NIV)

I Am Chosen to Be His

/ Baylee Snelling / 1 Comment

There are days when circumstances try to tell us who we are.

A difficult season says we’re forgotten.

A disappointment says we’re overlooked.

A failure says we’re not enough.

A closed door says we’re unwanted.

And if we’re not careful, we start listening.

We allow temporary circumstances
to become permanent conclusions.

But lately, I’ve been returning to a simple truth:

I am chosen to be His.

Not because everything is going according to plan.

Not because life feels easy.

Not because every prayer has been answered the way I hoped.

I am chosen to be His regardless.

Before the outcome.

Before the breakthrough.

Before the explanation.

Before the healing.

Before any of the things I keep waiting on.

And there is something incredibly freeing about that.

Because if my identity comes from Him,
then it doesn’t rise and fall with my circumstances.

A difficult season cannot take away what God has already declared.

An unanswered question cannot undo what He has already spoken.

A hard chapter cannot change whose I am.

The world may change.

My circumstances may change.

My emotions may change.

But this remains:

I am chosen to be His.

And that is enough.

“For he chose us in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight.”
— Ephesians 1:4 (NIV)

The Waves Don’t Ask Permission

/ Baylee Snelling / 1 Comment

One thing I’ve noticed about waves is that they never ask permission before they arrive.

They don’t check whether you’re ready.

They don’t wait until you’re rested.

They don’t pause because you’ve already had enough.

They just come.

Some barely reach your ankles.

Others knock you completely off balance.

And standing there watching them, I couldn’t help but think about how much life works the same way.

So much of life arrives uninvited.

Responsibilities.

Changes.

Opportunities.

Disappointments.

The things we prayed for.

The things we never would have chosen.

Rarely on our timeline.

Rarely with a warning.

And for a long time, I thought strength meant learning how to stop the waves.

How to predict them.

How to prepare for every possibility.

But maybe strength is something simpler than that.

Maybe it’s learning that you can stand back up after one knocks you down.

Not because every wave is small.

But because you’ve learned they won’t carry you away.

And because God has never left you standing in them alone.

“When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; and when you pass through the rivers, they will not sweep over you.”
— Isaiah 43:2 (NIV)

Trusting or Analyzing?

/ Baylee Snelling / 1 Comment

I’m starting to wonder if sometimes I’ve mistaken analyzing for trusting.

I tell myself I’m processing.

Thinking things through.
Trying to understand.
Trying to prepare for every possible outcome.
Trying to make sense of things that don’t make sense.

And to a point, that’s healthy.

But eventually there comes a moment when all the thinking stops producing clarity.

And starts producing exhaustion.

A moment when I’m no longer seeking understanding.

I’m seeking control.

Because if I can understand it,
I can predict it.

If I can predict it,
I can prepare for it.

And if I can prepare for it,
maybe it won’t hurt so much.

But that’s not trust.

Trust doesn’t require me to know every outcome.

Trust doesn’t demand an explanation for every uncertainty.

Trust says:

I don’t know exactly how this unfolds, but I know Who does.

And honestly?

I think that’s where I get stuck sometimes.

Not because I don’t trust God.

But because I trust my own analysis more than His ability to hold what I can’t understand.

And that’s a difficult thing to admit.

Because there are situations in life that simply refuse to fit neatly into a spreadsheet.

Questions that don’t get answered on my timeline.

Problems that can’t be solved by thinking about them one more time.

At some point, faith asks me to set down the calculator.

Not because understanding is bad.

But because understanding was never meant to replace trust.

“Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding.”
— Proverbs 3:5 (NIV)

God Has Been Patient With Me

/ Baylee Snelling / 1 Comment

The more life I experience,
the more I notice how patient God has been with me.

Patient in my waiting.
Patient in my overthinking.
Patient in the ways I’ve circled the same fears more than once.

And honestly,
I don’t think I always extend that same patience to myself.

I expect myself to heal faster.
Trust quicker.
Understand things immediately.

I get frustrated when I feel like I’m still struggling with something
I thought I should’ve moved past already.

But God doesn’t seem to respond to us that way.

Over and over throughout scripture,
He remains steady with people while they learn.

While they doubt.
While they wander.
While they ask the same questions again and again.

And maybe that’s part of grace too.

Not just that we’re loved.

But that we’re loved patiently.

Not rushed.
Not discarded when growth takes time.

Just gently led forward,
again and again.

“As a father has compassion on his children, so the Lord has compassion on those who fear him; for he knows how we are formed…”
— Psalm 103:13–14 (NIV)

It Changed the Way I Saw Hardship

/ Baylee Snelling / 1 Comment

I heard someone say recently,

“The devil doesn’t need to make life harder
for those who are already his.”

And while I don’t think life is always that simple,
the statement stayed with me.

Because for a long time,
I think part of me believed
that following God closely
would eventually lead to an easier life.

More peace.
More clarity.
Less resistance.

But that’s not actually what Scripture promises.

If anything,
some of the people closest to God in the Bible
walked through tremendous suffering.

Not because God abandoned them.

But because hardship and holiness
have never been mutually exclusive.

And honestly,
that changed the way I started viewing difficult seasons.

Not as proof that God is absent.
Not as punishment.
Not as failure.

But as part of living in a broken world
while still trying to remain anchored to Him inside of it.

Because faith was never about avoiding hardship.

It was about knowing Who remains beside you through it.

“In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.”
— John 16:33 (NIV)

Rest Isn’t Weakness

/ Baylee Snelling / 2 Comments

This has been a hard week for me.

And if I’m honest,
I don’t always know what to do with that.

Because I’ve spent a long time believing
that being tired meant I wasn’t handling things well enough.

That if I were stronger,
more disciplined,
more capable—

I wouldn’t feel so worn down sometimes.

So I push through it.

I try to stay productive.
Stay positive.
Stay okay.

And most of the time,
I don’t even talk about how tired I really am.

Because somewhere along the way,
I started associating rest with weakness.

But there comes a point
where your mind, your body, even your spirit
start asking for something different.

Not more effort.

Just rest.

And I’m starting to realize
that surrendering to rest
doesn’t mean I’m giving up.

It means I’m human.

It means I was never meant
to carry everything endlessly
without stopping to breathe.

And maybe resting isn’t weakness after all.

Maybe it’s trust.

Trust that the world won’t fall apart
if I stop striving for a moment.

Trust that God can hold things together
even when I finally let myself be still.

“Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.”
— Matthew 11:28 (NIV)

The Version of Me I Used to Picture

/ Baylee Snelling / 1 Comment

I used to picture adulthood differently.

Not in a big, dramatic way.

Just… more certain.

I thought by this point in my life,
I would feel more settled in my decisions.
More confident in where things were headed.
More sure of how everything would turn out.

And sometimes I think about that version of me—
the one I imagined years ago—
and wonder what she would think of the life I’m living now.

Not because it’s bad.

Just because it’s different.

There are parts of my life
I never would have predicted.

Parts that stretched me.
Parts that humbled me.
Parts that forced me to become someone stronger than I planned on needing to be.

And honestly?

I think the younger version of me
would be surprised by how much beauty can still exist
inside a life that didn’t go according to plan.

“In their hearts humans plan their course, but the Lord establishes their steps.”
— Proverbs 16:9 (NIV)

He’s Been Good to Me

/ Baylee Snelling / 1 Comment

I’ve been thinking about this lately.

How He’s been good to me.

Not in a loud, obvious way.
Not in a way that makes everything easy
or ties everything together the way I would choose—
because it hasn’t been easy.

But in the ways that matter.

In the way I’ve been carried
through things I couldn’t have carried alone.

In the way I’ve been steadied
when I didn’t feel steady on my own.

In the way I’ve been protected
in places I didn’t even realize I needed it.

And I don’t think I always noticed it at the time.

Because I was looking for something different.

Something clearer.
Something that made more sense.

But looking back, I can see it.

Not everything turned out the way I thought it would.

Not everything was restored the way I hoped.

But even in that—

He’s been good to me.

And I think that’s what I’m learning.

That His goodness isn’t always measured
by how things turn out.

Sometimes it’s measured
by how He holds you through it.

“Surely your goodness and love will follow me all the days of my life…”
— Psalm 23:6 (NIV)