Fearlessly Courageous
Desk of Dennis Piller
2 25 2026
“From Stubborn to Surrendered”– After I Heard His Whisper.
Have you ever stopped long enough to look back and ask —
What was God trying to tell me all those years?
Twenty to thirty… a blink.
Thirty to forty-five… a season.
Each season brought revelation — wisdom we paid for one mistake at a time.
But who were we listening to? Who was our island in the middle of the ocean when the storms rolled in?
Muhammad Ali once said, “The man who views the world at 50 the same way he did at 20
has wasted 30 years of his life.”
When I was in my late twenties, an older friend looked at me and said, “Dennis, you’re going to turn your head, and you’ll be fifty.” He was right. That was 26 years ago!
Life accelerates. But maturity? That depends on whether we listen or who we listen to.
By my mid-30s, I was stunned at how many grown adults still acted like middle schoolers. Gossip. Insecurity. Posturing. Even inside the church.
Someone once said, “I used to be an angel, but the backbiters chewed my wings off.”
And if we’re honest — we’ve all been wounded… and we’ve done some wounding.
The truth is, life does not become void of pain.
You weather one crisis only to meet another.
You get a few quiet years between explosions. Sometimes…
Then the bombs start dropping again. And here’s what took me decades to understand: Those explosions weren’t random.
They were tools.
A crisis is an unwelcomed opportunity to discover a new aspect of Jesus Christ.
But what you see depends on where you stand and who you stand with.
If you stand in pride, crisis feels unfair.
If you stand in fear, it feels overwhelming.
If you stand in ego, it feels insulting.
But if you stand in Christ… it becomes refining. Still listening?
Looking back now, I can see it clearly.
The Holy Spirit didn’t shout at me. He whispered.
Choose better friends.
Those guys aren’t good for you.
That road won’t be fun in the long run.
Go back to church. Change your filter.
Have faith in Jesus … real faith.
But I was stubborn. Not evil — just focused on the wrong things.
Success. Approval. Comfort. Control.
And slowly … not over years, but decades … the scales began to fall from my eyes.
The more I read His Word, the more I saw that He had been guiding me all along.
He wasn’t trying to restrict me.
He was trying to protect me.
He wasn’t limiting me.
He was maturing me.
And the suffering I resented most
was the very thing that reshaped me best.
So here’s the question tonight:
What if the pain you’re in right now is not punishment… but an invitation?
What if the crisis you’re trying to escape is the classroom you prayed for?
What if God has been whispering … and you’re finally quiet or desperate enough to hear Him?
Scripture says, “Casting all your care upon Him, for He cares for you.”
Care-free doesn’t mean trouble-free. It means weight-free. It means I stop gripping
what I was never built to carry.
You don’t wake up blind overnight.
You drift there — one compromise at a time.
But you don’t wake up wise overnight either.
You surrender there.
One yielding at a time.
So don’t waste your suffering. Don’t waste this season. Don’t waste the whisper.
Stand in Christ. Shift your perspective. Redeem the time.
And when you turn your head one day and realize you’re 50… or 60…
May you not say, “I wish I had listened.”
May you say, “He was faithful. And I finally learned to hear Him.”
It’s not too late. You can do better today!
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I Exalt Thee / Oh Lord You’re Beautiful
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