There’s always a reason to wait. You’re busy. You’re tired. You’re between jobs, between relationships, between breakdowns. You’re hoping the next season will bring clarity, energy, or some elusive sense of stability.
But the reality is simple: Life is not going to calm down.
The version of adulthood that many were promised — where things finally settle, your routines make sense, and your schedule opens up — isn’t coming. The inbox will refill. Plans will change. Something will always feel unfinished.
“The idea that you have to wait until everything is stable before showing up for your life is not just unrealistic — it’s a distraction,” said Laura Berman Fortgang, an executive coach and author of Now What? 90 Days to a New Life Direction. “Chaos leads to opportunity. Great things can happen, as long as you keep your cool and don’t buy into the panic.”
The problem, Fortgang argues, isn’t chaos itself. It’s how we respond to it.
“Chaos calls for leadership — your leadership,” she said. “This is the time to step up, not back down.”
The cultural narrative often says otherwise. Productivity experts, social media influencers and even some well-meaning Christian voices frame peace as something that’s earned. As if you can finally start living your purpose once you’ve reached inbox zero or mastered your morning routine. But peace isn’t found on the other side of perfect conditions. It’s cultivated in the middle of real life — the kind with laundry, unanswered texts and financial stress.
Even in Scripture, moments of calling weren’t presented with a clean calendar and a clear mind. Jesus didn’t wait for the disciples to get their lives in order before inviting them to follow. He called them mid-task. Their nets were still in hand. Their questions were unresolved. The world was already chaotic — and that’s when he said “Come.”
For many young adults today, especially those navigating faith in a hyper-distracted, hyper-connected world, the temptation is to believe that meaning and movement are things you can postpone. But often, waiting for a “better” season becomes a way to avoid growth.
Showing up — in your relationships, your calling, your spiritual life — rarely feels convenient. It almost never feels perfect. But, experts say, that’s not the point.
“The people who move forward in seasons of uncertainty are the ones willing to lead themselves anyway,” Fortgang said. “That doesn’t mean having all the answers. It means being willing to act even when you don’t.”
That shift in mindset can change everything. Instead of waiting to feel ready, you begin where you are. You apply for the job. You start the project. You join the group. You pray the prayer. You stop requiring conditions to be ideal before you commit to what you know matters.
This isn’t about hustle or toxic productivity. It’s about rejecting the myth that peace only exists in stillness. The deeper truth is that God is not waiting for you to have a perfectly balanced life before He moves. He is present now — in the chaos, in the tension, in the barely-holding-it-together moments that feel anything but holy.
If anything, that’s where He tends to do His best work.
So no, life probably won’t slow down the way you think it will. But that doesn’t mean you’re not ready. It doesn’t mean you’re behind. It means this is your life — not a prelude, not a holding pattern.
This is it. And it’s already happening.
