When the Journey Is Longer Than You Expected

The Bar-tailed Godwit is a remarkable bird. In 2022, one of these birds was tracked flying more than 8,400 miles from Alaska to Tasmania without stopping for food or rest. Eleven days of continuous flight across the Pacific Ocean. God designed this little bird with the ability to store the energy it would need for a journey that most of us can barely comprehend.

I find myself thinking about that bird when I consider the wilderness seasons of our own lives. Sometimes we enter a difficult season believing it will only last a little while. We pray, do everything we know to do, and expect that eventually a door will open. But the weeks become months, the months become years, and we begin to wonder how much longer we can keep going.

Job loss has been that wilderness for me. Losing my career didn't just affect my income. It challenged my identity, my sense of purpose, and the security I had spent years building. I've continued searching, applying, praying, and trying to understand what God is doing. There have been plenty of days when I've wondered whether I have enough strength left for whatever comes next.

In Matthew 6:26, Jesus tells us to look at the birds of the air and consider how our heavenly Father feeds them. He then reminds us that we are worth much more to Him. I don't believe He was promising us a life without hardship. I believe He was reminding us that our circumstances don't determine our value to Him or place us beyond His care.

When God led Israel through the wilderness, He provided manna one day at a time. They couldn't collect enough to eliminate their dependence on Him for the rest of the journey. They had to learn to trust Him for each day's provision, even when they didn't understand how long the journey would last.

That's a lesson I'm still learning.

It's also what led me to write my latest book, Lean On Me: When God Takes Your Crutch Away. I wrote it while wrestling with the loss of the career, financial security, and sense of identity I had leaned on for so long. It's not a story written from the other side of hardship with everything neatly resolved. It's about learning to trust God while the ground beneath you still feels unsteady.

I don't know how much longer my wilderness will last, and I certainly wouldn't pretend to know how long yours will last either. But Isaiah 40:29 reminds us that God gives strength to the weary and increases the power of the weak.

Perhaps the encouragement we need today isn't a promise that tomorrow will bring the answer we've been waiting for. Perhaps it's the reminder that we can bring our exhaustion, uncertainty, and unanswered questions to a God who hasn't abandoned us.

That little bird doesn't carry an ocean's worth of energy for the rest of its life. It was equipped for the journey ahead of it. And while our own journeys are very different, I believe we can trust the God who created it to sustain us as we keep turning to Him, one day at a time.

If you're walking through a wilderness of your own, I wrote Lean On Me with people like you in mind. I hope my experience encourages you to keep trusting God, even when you don't know how the story will unfold.

You can find my book here:

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The journey may be longer than you expected, but you don't have to face it without the God who sustains you.

Matthew 6:26 | Deuteronomy 8:2–4 | Isaiah 40:29–31