When You Know What He's Asking and You Just Can't Pick Up the Shovel Yet

By Erica Ogden | Set Apart Coaching

I just got back from She Speaks, hosted by Proverbs 31 Ministries. Four consecutive years I have walked through those doors, and every single time there is something that happens in a room full of 600 women who are all in love with the same Man that just cannot be replicated anywhere else.

This year was different for me though. I didn't show up with an agenda. No "if I walk away with a book proposal outline it will have been worth it" energy. None of that. I didn't even come with the expectation that God was going to move on my heart in any specific way. I just came with hope. Quiet, open-handed hope that I would walk away with exactly what He had for me.

Because honestly? My heart has been weary.

Does This Resonate With Anyone Else?

So much on my plate. So many hats. So much life.

It's been a season of grace and rest for me, and before you picture me lounging on a hammock, let me be clear. I mean the kind of rest where you are still doing all the things, wearing all the hats, showing up for everyone... but inside you are running on fumes and craving stillness more than you crave growth right now.

You want to be better. You want to do better. You have goals and dreams and things you said you were going to do. But more than any of that, what you really want right now is for everything to just... stop for a minute.

If that's you, I feel you. I am with you. You are not behind. There’s nothing “wrong” with you. We are human.

The Shovel

I came across a quote recently that stopped me cold:

"If you are praying for God to move mountains, you better be ready to wake up next to a shovel."

And I just sat with that for a minute.

Because yes. I want the mountain moved. I have been praying for the mountain to move. But the shovel? That means I better start digging to help him move it. I can see it. It's right there next to me. I know exactly what God is asking me to do.

I just don't want to pick it up yet.

And I think that's okay to admit. I think there is something deeply honest about saying, “ God, I believe you can move this. I believe you will move this. And I need you to know that I am showing up with everything I have left, which today doesn't look like very much.”

We can be good at knowing what we need. Sometimes we even know we need something but can't name what it is. And sometimes we want the blessing, we can see exactly what God needs to do... and we know exactly what our part is. We just don't have it in us right now.

That is not a faith failure. That is an honest prayer.

Hitting the Wall

I kept saying it to my friend, to my husband, to God…."I've just hit a wall."

Not a dramatic breakdown. Not a crisis. Just... going through the motions of every single thing while having lost my ability to feel joy, gratitude, or peace in any of it. Not mentally present. Just there.

That was where I needed God to move. To remove, rejuvenate, and restore what was feeling quietly dead inside me.

And He did. Not in a lightning bolt moment. Not in a conference session that changed everything. But slowly, gently, in the way He tends to show up when we finally just come with open hands.

What Open Hands Actually Looks Like

I think we often approach God, and honestly our own lives, with a tightly gripped agenda. Even our prayers can sound more like a project plan than a surrender.

Open hands looks different. It looks like walking into a women’s conference and saying, whatever you have for me, Lord, I receive it. It looks like releasing the pressure to have a breakthrough and just being present enough to notice the small things He's already doing.

It looks like rest without guilt. Like grace without conditions. Like trusting that a season of less is not a season of losing ground.

If you are in a weary season right now, I want to leave you with this:

You do not have to earn your next chapter. You do not have to perform your way into God's blessing. And you do not have to pick up the shovel today if today all you have is the prayer.

He sees you right where you are. Open hands is enough.

"For I know the plans I have for you," declares the Lord, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future."

-- Jeremiah 29:11

With love and grace for the weary,

Erica Ogden

Certified Neuro Coach | Set Apart Coaching

If this resonated and you know you're ready to do the deeper work when the season shifts, I'd love to be in your corner. Learn more at ericaogden.com/