Glory & Grit : Season 2, Episode 4 - When You’re Doing the Right Things and Still Don’t Feel Like You’re Moving Forward

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Show Notes:

Summary

You made the appointments. You followed the instructions. You rearranged your life around the next step—and then the plan stopped. What do you do when you are faithfully doing what you know to do, but the answer has not come and the outcome still looks painfully unfinished?

In this solo episode of Glory & Grit, Stephanie shares the ongoing story of a delayed surgery and the frustration of repeated stops, tests, and changed plans. The situation is not tied up with a neat resolution. That is precisely the point: sometimes the clearest evidence of progress is not that the situation changed, but that you are learning to walk through it differently.

Drawing from Alma 32:28–37 and Galatians 6:9, Stephanie explores the difference between a finished outcome and real formation. A seed can swell, sprout, and begin to grow before there is fruit. A harvest can be real before it is visible. Faith does not require pretending circumstances do not matter, and faithful waiting does not mean refusing help, ignoring danger, or standing passively in the hallway forever.

Key Topics

• Stephanie’s ongoing health story and the emotional weight of a delayed surgery

• Why we tend to count only completed outcomes as progress

• Alma’s seed image and the evidence that appears before the fruit

• The difference between faithful waiting and passive avoidance

• A simple Quiet Progress Inventory for an unfinished season

Takeaways

• Your life can be unfinished without being unchanged.

• Growth may look like recovering more quickly, pausing before reacting, asking for help, or setting a needed boundary.

• One difficult day does not erase every healthier response that came before it.

• You can release the outcome to God without surrendering the choices that belong to you.

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Transcript:

Stephanie (00:02)

Have you ever looked at your life and thought I'm doing what I know how to do? So why does it still feel like I'm not getting anywhere? You're praying, you're showing up, and you're trying to make better choices. You're doing the work or at least the work to the best of your ability for what you have strength right now. But no answers are coming.

The situation hasn't changed, the doors haven't opened, the healing hasn't completed, and your life still looks painfully unfinished.

If that's where you are right now, I want to talk to you today about quiet progress. The kind that doesn't arrive with a big announcement or this dramatic breakthrough or even this beautiful before and after picture. Because not all progress looks like movement. Sometimes progress is becoming steady.

where you used to fall apart.

Hi friend. Welcome back to Glory and Grit, where faith meets real life. I'm your host Stephanie, and I'm so glad you're here with me today. This season

We've been talking about what it means to keep walking with God through rebuilding identity, waiting, healing, and all the parts of life that don't come together as quickly or as neatly as we had hoped they would. So today we're asking, how do I recognize progress when my life still feels unfinished?

You ready? Let's get started.

Now, you may remember I've said an earlier episode about this condition, the pain that I was having in my arm. And I can't remember if I've gone into details about it, but it was an issue that started overseas when I was on our mission and it was very painful then and the it's very painful now. And the doctor there told me to wait till I get home since I was it was almost time for me to come home.

And I thought everything was okay because eventually it kind of died down some and then I got back here and for months there was nothing. And then all of a sudden, bam, it started to paint again. The pain started to revert up my arm and to my shoulders and it was really bad. So I set out appointments. Well actually I went to a orthopaedic kind of doc in the box and

then made an appointment to see a specialist and you know I made the appointments, I did the test, I did all the x-rays, the MRIs, and I did everything that they told me to do to prepare for that appointment. I went to the appointment

We talked about it and made a decision. The surgery was the best option. And then I rearranged my life all around that so that I could have this surgery at the set time. I was taking pain medication and biding my time until the surgery date. I was all ready to go, right? The night before

the surgery. I call the day before the surgery, I called to find out, okay, what what am I supposed to do? No N P I, you know, those kind of things.

She asked me if I had any heart diagnosis or anything and I said no. I I wore a heart monitor, but that was, you know, there were problems with that. The the monitor itself, not with my health at the moment, as far as I knew.

Well, apparently the next morning the anesthesiologist decided, no, I need to know what the results of the monitor are. And I was frustrated and angry and upset because I had been waiting months for this surgery because it didn't happen immediately due to reasons and whatnot. And you know, I was upset, I cried and

and all the things because it meant prolonging not only the pain but whatever more damage would come from that. And I felt like I had done all the things that I was told to do.

And now at the last minute I'm being told I can't have it until I receive something else. And the the follow-up for that was like 30 days away. So we're talking another month I'm gonna have to go. And then I look the Lord's always in the details. So

I got rescheduled quicker than I anticipated and then I thought, great, now I'm gonna have my surgery. No, although the tests were perfectly fine, there was nothing wrong, I got halted for another test.

Okay. And then after that I got halted again for another test or for the second part of that test. And then again I got held up another week for results to come. I was very unhappy. I felt like I was in a box.

And I was in this black void of space, just standing there in this box with no direction to turn and that I was not progressing at all and having my issues with my arm addressed, with these nerves addressed. I felt like I was getting worse. I felt like

Everything was stopping me from getting the one thing that I kept making preparations and kept following the things I was told to do to make it happen, yet everything was in my way to stop it from happening. For me that felt like an eternity of standing in that box, in that void, with nothing happening, with no progression whatsoever, because there was nothing that I could see.

visually happening to make what I needed to happen happen, right? And today we're still waiting. I still have no surgery today. again I am still doing everything that I'm told to do in preparation and

The situation is still unfolding. It's not wrapped up with a pretty bow. So I ha I have nothing more to go on than that, then I'm just still waiting, right? But I have to mentally tell my heart that there's some quiet progress that's happening in the background, right?

I don't know if prior to this I would have been able to function or to I wouldn't have been able to move past each of these steps.

and head towards the direction that I'm supposed to be going on. I I imagine I would have fallen apart a lot more. I would have been a lot angrier and a lot more ornery with people. because

I felt that nothing was happening, right?

But what I can tell you is that I'm responding a bit different than I might have at some other point in my life. I mean, even the first cancellation was I you know, I broke down. I just I broke down for about an hour and then then and then I got up and I went to my Toastmasters meeting and I went on with my day, right?

I'm learning to listen instead of forcing it to happen, right? I'm allowing the plan to adjust and allowing myself to adjust with the adjustments. That makes sense. I'm continuing to ask the questions and take the next appropriate step without pretending

then I can control the outcome because clearly I have no control because if I did I'd have my surgery already. So I'm learning to adjust to that. Because I truly have no control.

Now, it may not look like movement from the outside.

The surgery didn't happen, the health issue didn't disappear, but something in the way I am walking through this is changing.

When the plan stops and your big outcome hasn't changed, it's easy to decide that nothing has changed. But those are not the same thing. An unfinished life is not the same thing as an unchanged life, right?

I think the problem is that a lot of us

learned or just assumed to count only the finished outcomes as progress.

You apply for a job and you get the job, that's visible progress. But what if the answer had been no? You started getting treatment and you got better, not me, but anybody else. But what if you're doing the work and you're not being healed, right?

What if you worked on a relationship and it was restored, but the other person has choices too?

maybe you prayed and you received some clear direction of which way to go. But what if you didn't receive enough light? But what if you received only enough light for the next step and not for the whole road? which God does a lot. If the finish outcomes are the only evidence that we count

We could be growing in ten different directions and still call ourselves stuck because the one thing we wanted the most hasn't happened yet. Outcomes do matter. I I mean if you need a job, inner growth ain't gonna pay the electrical bill. If you if your body is hurting, a lesson in patience is not gonna make the pain imaginary.

If a relationship is unsafe, becoming more spiritually steady doesn't mean you should stay there, right? Faith is not pretending that circumstances don't matter. But circumstances aren't the only place where God works. Sometimes we're watching the door, waiting for it to open, when God is quietly changing the person standing in front of the door.

And sometimes progress isn't walking through the door. Sometimes it's having enough wisdom to stop when new information tells you not to force it open.

In Alma thirty-two, twenty eight through thirty seven, Alma talks about a seed, right? And a seed being planted in our hearts, right? And he's inviting the people to make room in their heart to plant this seed with the word as the word. And that seed planted in your heart.

starts to show small evidence that it's growing, right? The seed starts to swell, it it starts to enlarge your soul and you start to understand and be enlightened by the word and and then it starts to feel good to you, right? Well when you plant a tree in the ground, it doesn't immediately spring up a tree, right?

But it does start to swell, then it pops open, then life comes out of it, right? So although the fruit might not have arrived yet on this little seed.

There is evidence of life. And I love that Alma doesn't ask us to pretend we have a tree when we can see that the seed is beginning to swell.

He teaches us to recognize the evidence that's actually there. Now, what is already beginning to change in me? What is enlarging?

What am I beginning to understand now that I couldn't understand before? Where is there evidence of life even if I don't have the fruit yet?

You still have difficult days, but you recover more quickly, right? The same kind of comments still hurts, but now you kind of pause before you react to them. You ask for help before reaching your breaking point.

You set boundaries once in a while where you used to feel guilty for needing to do that.

you experience setbacks without turning it into a verdict on your whole life.

these things might not give you anything impressive to announce, but quiet progress still counts.

I want you to remember something that used to completely undo you. That, you know, just unhinged you. I'll give you a second. You got it? Alright, great.

Now ask these questions.

Did you shut down, lash out, assume the worst, or isolate yourself?

Did one mistake convince you that everything was ruined?

Did you remember that one hard moment was not the whole story?

When the plan changed, were you able to pause and respond instead of immediately turning the interruption into proof that everything was wrong?

Growth doesn't always mean that the thing no longer affects you, right? sometimes growth sounds less like victory shouts and more like

That didn't break me the way it used to.

Sometimes the proof that God is changing your life isn't that the situation changed. It's that you changed.

Look, let me give you some examples how you can let one difficult day erase months of growth. Okay? You ready? See if any of these sound familiar. You were doing better and then you lost your temper.

You were rebuilding confidence and one rejection knock the wind out of you.

You were learning to trust God and something brought all the old questions back. Mm-hmm. Any of those sound familiar? Or something close to those? Sound familiar to you? Mm-hmm. we let one wrong thing come in and changed our whole view of all the progress we've had.

One hard response doesn't erase every healthier response that came before it. a setback is not automatically a reset. Okay? We got that? Awesome. One anxious day doesn't erase months of learning peace, a greater peace.

One exhausted day doesn't mean that you've lost all your discipline. A moment of grief doesn't mean you fail to heal. And please, please, please know that one question doesn't mean you've lost your faith.

Sometimes you revisit old feelings with new tools, right?

You're allowed to acknowledge what is still hard and what is already changing.

Both things can be true

If you turn to Galatians 6 9, it says, And let us not be weary in well doing, for in due season we shall reap if we faint not.

So sowing and reaping don't happen on the same day. There's a there's a a stretch of time when we have to do work, you know, but that harvest can't be seen yet. We're doing all this work to prepare and grow the harvest, but it can't be seen for days, weeks, months, right?

So weariness doesn't mean that the sowing was wasted. Doesn't mean all that plowing and watering and and all the things that the farmer does is wasted. It just means continuing without visible results can be tiring.

in due season belongs to God. It's not a promise that every preferred outcome is gonna arrive on our timetable because we know God has his own timetable and we can't make it change. the harvest might include what God has grown within us.

Not only the circumstances we hope he would change around us, right? An example of a possible quiet growth that God may be producing. Turning to him before panicking, telling the truth.

Recognizing what is and what is not yours to carry. Taking a step without demanding the entire map. Receiving help.

Even keeping a small promise when nobody else is watching.

The fact that you can't see the harvest yet doesn't mean nothing is growing.

That seed is still growing whether you see it coming through the dirt or not. Right? So don't make the mistake that an unseen season is a wasted one.

Recognizing quiet progress doesn't mean romanticizing you're stuck. Okay? It doesn't mean staying indefinitely in a harmful situation and then calling your endurance spiritual growth.

It doesn't mean refusing help because you believe you should be able to pray your way through everything alone. Mm-mm. And it doesn't mean that every closed door is God telling you to stand in the hallway forever.

Sometimes progress is becoming steadier. Sometimes progress is making appointments, changing the plan, asking the questions you've been avoiding, setting boundaries, seeking professional help, leaving what's unsafe. Try it differently.

resting before your body forces you to.

Listening when your body, a trusted professional, or new information tells you that the original plan needs to change. That's one that I struggle with because I don't always like change. Let me know if you can feel me on that one. Faithful waiting is not the same thing as passive avoidance.

You can release the outcome to God without surrendering the choices that belong to you.

So before today ends, I want you to do two things. First, name a quiet sign that you're not responding exactly as you once did. Maybe you recovered more quickly, maybe you asked for help, maybe you rested. Okay. Then I want you to choose one faithful next step.

That belongs to you. Not the whole staircase, not a five-year plan, right? Not proof that everything will work out the way you want it to. Just one sign of growth. And then one faithful next step.

I'm calling that the Quiet Progress Inventory.

My friend, if your life still feels unfinished, I'm not trying to tell you that the breakthrough is definitely coming next week because I don't know that. I don't know that. And I'm not gonna tell you that if you just have more faith that the answer will arrive in the form that you expect it to, because I don't know that either.

Faith doesn't give us control over God's timing, over other people's choices, or every circumstance of mortality. Right? But I will ask you not to overlook the work that's already happening simply because it's not finished.

The seed is not yet a tree, but is it beginning to swell? The harvest isnot visible yet, but is something already taking root?

The situation might still be difficult, but are you becoming more honest, more discerning, more willing to receive?

or more able to stand grounded in God.

The plan may have changed, but are you learning that changing the plan is not the same thing as abandoning faith?

I hope you are.

you might not be where you hoped you would be. But that doesn't mean you're where you started. not all progress looks like movement. Sometimes progress is becoming steady when you're used to falling apart. Your life can be unfinished without being unchanged. So this week

Look again.

Look again.

Name one quiet sign of growth. Take one faithful next step and then release the part that was never yours to control.

Please remember there is the companion page for this episode over on gloryandgritpodcast.com.

I'm your host, Stephanie, and thank you so much for joining me today. If this episode was encouraging or helpful to you, I would love for you to share it with someone who might need it too. You can also sign up for the weekly walking encouragement emails on Monday over at glory and grit podcast.com.

And I'm truly appreciative for all your support on Glory and Grit. Thank you for listening. Thank you for the love. Until next time, my friend. Keep looking for Glory and keep walking with grit. Bye now.