The Encouragement That Arrived Right When I Needed It Most

I’ve been in a hard season for the better part of three years now — some of it pain I played a part in and have since repented of, most of it I had no hand in at all, including losing my father just days after a fall. I’m well cared for through it — a wonderful wife, close friends, a therapist, a coach, and a pastor who all have been incredibly helpful. I love the people I serve, which is part of why the timing landed as hard as it did. In the middle of it, encouragement from clients kept surfacing — some fresh, some resurfacing in my memory from weeks earlier — arriving right when I needed it, as if someone other than them had timed it.

Craig Meyer wrote about seeking the renewing of his mind each day, and about incorporating what he’s gaining here as he leads both his own business and his team. Ben Robinson said The Daily CHEW has become an early morning anchor point, a forcing function to ask himself questions he’d sometimes rather avoid. Cory Sellers wrote about how much clearer our session summary notes have become — a small comment, but one that landed at a moment I needed to hear it.*

C.H.E.W. with Me

New here? What is CHEW? — a 30-second practice that grows into a day woven with God’s love.

C: Clarity — A Cut That Doesn’t Mean You Failed

It’s easy to read a hard season as evidence something went wrong — in you, or between you and God. But a branch already bearing fruit doesn’t get left alone. It gets cut back further, on purpose, by someone who wants more from it, not less. The instinct to search for what you did to deserve the difficulty is often just that — an instinct, not the truth of what’s happening.

H: Hear — Pruned Because You’re Already Bearing Fruit

“I am the true vine, and my Father is the vinedresser. Every branch of mine that does not bear fruit he takes away, and every branch that does bear fruit he prunes, that it may bear more fruit.” (John 15:1–2)

Notice who gets pruned here — not the fruitless branch, the fruitful one. The Greek word behind “prunes,” kathairei, shares its root with katharos, “clean” — the same word Jesus uses two verses later: “You are already clean because of the word.” Pruning and cleansing come from the same hand, toward the same end: more fruit, not less standing.

Hebrews adds the texture of what pruning actually feels like from the inside: “For the moment all discipline seems painful rather than pleasant, but later it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it” (Hebrews 12:11). “Trained,” gymnazo — the word behind our “gymnasium” — pictures deliberate, repeated conditioning, not a single cut and done. The pain is real in the moment. It was never the point.

E: Exchange — More Good Coming, Not Punishment Landing

Trade “this hard season means I’ve done something wrong” for “the Vinedresser is investing in a branch that’s already producing.” I still examine my own part in a hard season honestly — where I’ve contributed, I name it and repent. But I’ve stopped frantically searching for fault where there’s none to find. A woman holding her newborn doesn’t forget the labor, but the love in her arms makes the pain worth having endured. 

Because God’s love is willing to cut back what’s already bearing fruit so it can bear more, how does that change the way you’re carrying this season?

W: Walk — Name the Encouragement, Then Say Thanks

Think of one piece of encouragement that’s arrived recently with timing you can’t fully explain — a note, a comment, a small kindness. Name what season it met you in. Then thank the person who sent it, even if they have no idea what it did. Let it be one more piece of evidence that the Father who prunes is also the Father who sends exactly what you need, exactly when you need it.

Closing question: If pruning is investment and not punishment, what would you carry differently today?

*All client testimonials shared with permission from our clients.