el olaM
Trusting God With Unfinished Stories
Unfinished stories can carry a quiet discomfort. We want neat endings, clear resolutions, and answers that make sense of everything that came before. Yet much of our lives feel like a chapter that stops mid-sentence.
You pray, but the answer doesn’t come.
You work faithfully, but the breakthrough delays.
You believe God has a purpose, but the path ahead looks uncertain.
In moments like these, it’s easy to believe that somewhere we must have gone wrong, gotten off-track in our walk. But the truth is that many of God’s greatest works happen in the middle of unfinished stories.
God’s greatest works happen in the middle of unfinished stories.
Throughout Scripture, God’s people lived through long seasons where the ending wasn’t visible yet. Abraham waited decades for the promise of a son. Joseph endured betrayal and prison before he ever saw God’s plan unfold. Even the disciples sat in confusion between the cross and the resurrection.
Their stories looked unfinished, until they weren’t.
We often judge our lives too early, as if the current chapter is the final one. But God is not limited to the pages we can see. What feels like a delay may actually be divine preparation. What seems like silence may be the quiet work of God arranging details we cannot yet understand.
The Bible gives a name for God that can speak directly to us in this circumstance: El Olam, the Everlasting God. The name first appears in Genesis 21:33, when Abraham plants a tamarisk tree in Beersheba and “calls on the name of the Lord, the Everlasting God.” This name teaches us that God is eternal and unchangeable, remaining faithful to all generations.
Keep walking. Keep trusting. Keep believing.
I’m sure we’ve all experienced those moments when we question God’s timeline. When the answer isn’t coming when we thought it would or how we thought it should. Several years ago, my daughter had just completed her bachelor’s degree at Grand Valley State University and was thrilled to snag an elusive interview for their occupational therapy program. Becoming an OT had been her dream since high school. One night after her interview she called me in tears and said she was not offered one of the placements but had been put on a waitlist in case someone withdrew from the program. She was devastated. She could apply again next year, but there was no guarantee she would even get another interview in this highly competitive area of study. It took everything for me not to get in my car and drive to Grand Rapids to be with her. As I prayed with her, I was confident that somehow it would all work out. The summer progressed, and she was planning and choosing classes for her “plan B” master’s program. In August, she received an unexpected phone call. She was offered a placement in GVSU’s new hybrid OT program, not the traditional program for which she had originally applied. We were ecstatic, and she happily accepted. As she worked her way through the program for the next couple of years, God’s perfect plan was revealed a bit at a time:
The hybrid program only required her to be in Grand Rapids one weekend a month, so she was able to move back home and save money.
When Covid shutdown happened, her hybrid program continued as normal, while the traditional program she didn’t get into had to scramble and figure out what to do, thus affecting the program and its timeline.
She met, fell in love, and married the man God had for her while living here at home (Not Grand Rapids!).
It has been amazing to see God’s timeline and plan unfolding in her life. Isaiah 37:26 says, “His plans and purposes are timeless, and He will not fail to follow through with them.”
If your story feels incomplete today, take heart. The chapter you’re in is not the final one. El Olam is steady in EVERY season, and He does NOT abandon unfinished work. He does not forget His promises, and He is NEVER surprised by the plot twists of our lives.
Do you not know? Have you not heard? The Lord is the everlasting God, the Creator of the whole earth. He never becomes faint or weary; there is no limit to his understanding (Isaiah 40:28)
Keep trusting. Keep walking. Keep believing.
