In Due Time
“Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up.” — Galatians 6:9
Norway. December 2025. Two months before the Milano Cortina Winter Olympics.
Elana Meyers Taylor — 41 years old, body broken after a bobsled crash so violent the federation refused to release the footage — picked up her phone and sent her husband two sentences: “I’m done. This is just impossible. It’s never going to work.”
She meant every word.
Twenty years in the sport. Five Olympics. Three silvers, two bronzes — and never gold. At Sochi 2014, she led going into the final run and lost gold by 0.10 seconds. At Pyeongchang 2018, she lost it by 0.07. Always the podium. Never the top step. She also had two sons with special needs — Nico, five years old, deaf with Down syndrome; Noah, three, whose cochlear implant broke mid-summer and required emergency surgery during critical Olympic prep.
She had given everything she had. And it still wasn’t enough.
You may not be training for the Olympics. But you know this feeling. The moment when the gap between what you’ve invested and what you’ve received becomes impossible to justify. The moment your faith starts to feel less like an anchor and more like a liability.
An unnamed San Antonio Spurs player — connected to her husband Nic’s work as the team’s performance coach — quietly purchased Nic a plane ticket to Norway. No announcement. No fanfare. Just a message: Go to your wife.
Nic flew across the ocean. He didn’t fix anything. He didn’t promise results. He just showed up.
And she stayed.
This is the part of the perseverance story that rarely gets told — that most people who didn’t quit didn’t white-knuckle their way through alone. They received something they didn’t manufacture. In 1 Kings 19, Elijah collapsed under a broom tree and told God plainly: “I’ve had enough. Take my life.” God didn’t rebuke him. He sent an angel with bread and water and one instruction: “Get up and eat, for the journey is too much for you.” The help was ordinary — a meal, a rest, a companion. But it arrived at exactly the right moment. God often sends perseverance through people, not through inspiration.
Two months later, on the morning of the final race in Milano Cortina — February 2026 — Elana did something unusual. Before the runs, she sat with Nico and Noah — who had flown in to watch — and taught them three new signs: Champion. Bobsled. Gold medal.
She admitted afterward she wasn’t sure they’d ever need to use them. She taught them anyway.
This is what active faith looks like — not the absence of doubt, but the decision to prepare for something you haven’t received yet. Not denial. Not performance. The quiet, stubborn act of getting ready for what you are still believing God for.
Milano Cortina. February 2026. Gold. By 0.04 seconds. At 41, she became the oldest woman to win an individual gold medal in Winter Games history.
Elana collapsed on the ice. Her sons ran across the finish line to her. And Nic, watching from the stands, turned to three-year-old Noah and signed: That’s Mommy.
The gold medal was not the whole story. The people who received it with her — that was the whole story.
This is what Galatians 6:9 means by “at the proper time.” The harvest doesn’t come before the planting is done. The joy is proportional to the weight of what was carried. Gold hits differently when you almost quit in December.
Many of us are in “Norway” right now — exhausted, results not showing up, sending prayers that amount to the same message: I’m done. This is impossible. It’s never going to work.
Don’t make a permanent decision in a winter season. The proper time is not your current worst moment. Elana didn’t win because she was the strongest person in the race. She won because she stayed two months longer than she wanted to.
Teach the victory signs. You are not finished yet.
Reflection
- Where in your work or calling are you currently in a “Norway moment” — carrying real weight with results that don’t yet reflect your effort? What would it look like to stay two more months instead of walking away?
- Who has God sent to you as a “plane ticket” — someone whose presence helped you persevere? And is there someone in your circle right now who needs you to show up the same way?
Prayer
Father, I confess that I am tired — not because I’ve been faithless, but because the journey has been long. I don’t want to perform perseverance. I want to receive it from You. Send what I need to stay. And where You’re asking me to keep preparing — help me teach the signs, even before the breakthrough comes. I trust that Your “proper time” is not an excuse for delay. It is a promise of precision. Amen.