By Steve Gatena
Obed was sixteen.
Expelled from his eighth school.
And running with a gang that didn’t care if he made it home.
He wasn’t searching for God.
He was just trying to survive the night.
You probably haven’t lived Obed’s story exactly.
But you know what it feels like to wonder if your worst years have already written the ending for you.
They haven’t.
The chapter you’re most ashamed of is often the one God builds the most from.
Obed’s rebellion, his arrests, his years of rage…
None of it disqualified him. It all became material.
The night everything broke open, Obed was nearly killed.
Somewhere in the chaos, a forgotten prayer from childhood surfaced in his throat.
He cried out, and something shifted.
His mother, he’d later learn, was on her knees at that exact moment.
That’s the part that gets you.
She didn’t know; she just stayed faithful.
The prayers being prayed over you.
The seeds planted in your story before you understood them.
They’re still working.
Obed started a Bible club called “Lost and Found” with seven students.
By senior year, 274 packed the gym.
Years later, he launched Destiny Church, and it opened with the same number: 274.
Your setbacks aren’t evidence that the story is over.
They’re evidence that the rewrite is underway.
The scars become symbols.
The shame becomes a story worth telling.
Hand God the pen.
Let Him work with every chapter, including the ones you’d rather skip.
Here’s your focus for today:
• Name the chapter: Write down one season you’ve written off as wasted and offer it back to God today.
• Stay in proximity: Identify one person carrying the legacy you want and take one step closer to them this week.
• Pray as it matters: Pray specifically for someone in their hard chapter, the way Obed’s mother prayed for him.
• Anchor your day in this truth: “God does not take life away. Instead, He devises ways so that a banished person may not remain banished.” (2 Samuel 14:14)
Your best chapter hasn’t started yet.
Keep going.
