It’s fall again. Cooling temperatures and the start of new rhythms. Bible studies and discipleship groups are starting back up. Calendars are filled with all the things. And maybe, if you’re honest, you’re feeling a little left out. You want to be part of a group. You want the structure, the steady pace, the space to talk through Scripture with others, but your schedule says otherwise.
Maybe you’re in a season where nothing lines up the way you’d like. Maybe you’re juggling work, caring for family, or healing from something hard. I remember one season in particular where I was working two jobs, 8-5’s during the week and pulling twelve-hour shifts at the hospital on the weekends. My body was tired, my mind was a blur, and my soul was dry. But one day, I realized that my schedule didn’t mean I had to go without the Word.
So I started with what I had. Each time I had margin, I wrote down notes from the sermon text on YouTube. I read the passage again during the week. I asked questions. I prayed it back to God. Some days it was five minutes. Some days it was longer. And in that quiet, imperfect rhythm, God met me.
Here’s what I want to remind you: You don’t have to wait for the perfect group or the perfect time. You already have what you need.
Paul’s words in 2 Timothy 3:16–17 still hold true: “All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the servant of God may be complete, equipped for every good work.”
The Word equips us. No special tools required.
Start small. Open your Bible and choose a passage. A psalm. A parable. A chapter from one of Paul’s letters (epistles). Or begin with what your pastor preached on Sunday. Read it slowly. Read it again. Ask: What does this say about God? What does it reveal about us? What truth does it hold? What correction does it bring? What hope does it offer?
Write down what stands out. Bring your questions to God. Don’t rush past what’s hard or seems strange. Let the Holy Spirit take His time in refining your mind and walk.
You don’t need another six-week workbook. You don’t need a formal group. You need a willing heart and an open Bible.
God is faithful to meet us there.
This month, don’t let what you don’t have convince you to delay. Build a study right where you are. With what you have. As you are. Scripture is already alive. Already working. And so is God in equipping you for every good work He has called you to.
Emotions are not a design flaw. They are part of God’s good creation. They are not sinful in themselves, even when they feel intense or inconvenient. Jesus, fully God and fully man, felt the full range. Luke tells us He rejoiced in the Holy Spirit with joy that overflowed. John records the shortest verse in Scripture, “Jesus wept” (John 11:35), reminding us that sorrow has a place in holy ground. Mark shows us His righteous anger as He looked around at hardened hearts with grief mixed in (Mark 3:5). Matthew lets us overhear His deep distress in Gethsemane when He said, “My soul is very sorrowful, even to death” (Matthew 26:38). Over and over again, we see compassion move Him toward people, not away from them. If Jesus felt emotions without sinning, we need to stop labeling emotions themselves as the problem.
To be unhindered is not to have a flawless plan or a perfectly curated life. It is to clear away the distractions that keep us from being faithful right where we are. It is to remember that our identity is in Christ, not in comparison, not in productivity, not in striving. And because God is our source, we are not dependent on systems that exhaust us. We lean into the Holy Spirit who sustains us. Steward It Well
And as we sit here in 2026, I think many of us aren’t tangled up in obvious sin and rebellion. We’re actually exhausted by accumulation. Expectations. Distractions. Comparisons. The pressure to do more and be more, even when God hasn’t asked us to.
That’s why the Word of the Year, Unhindered, is so timely and fitting.
We’ve got to get more honest about what we’re carrying. We often assume that spiritual growth and maturity are tied to adding more and increase, but here in Hebrews, we see the opposite. We see release. Casting things off. Laying things aside. Surrender.
It’s an invitation to reflection. What has slowly attached itself to us? What fills our days and dulls our discernment? What keeps us busy, but lacking real fruit?
To wait well is to lean in when we want to pull back. It’s to light our lamps with trust and faithfulness. It’s to keep our hearts open, our hands obedient, and our eyes on the horizon.
So if you’re in a waiting season right now, whether it’s for healing, direction, provision, or just a sense of peace, take heart.
