When Nothing Seems to Be Happening

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Have you ever sat down to write, create, or pray—and found only a void, like staring at a blank canvas? When nothing seems to be happening, waiting for creativity to ignite, for inspiration to spark, and for the words to finally take flight can be disheartening.

I’ve been pondering, praying, and reading this week. I’ve changed my location many times, hoping that inspiration will emerge. I have multiple themes that pop into my mind. I start writing, but it feels laborious and not free-flowing. Each idea ends flat, with nowhere to go, an apparent roadblock. I ask the Lord, “What direction would you like us to go?” 

Silence. Internally, that’s all I hear, and yet exteriorly, there are conversations in the background, a barista steaming milk, cars driving by, and a dog barking. Perhaps inspiration isn’t hiding in another, quieter coffee shop, but by the river that’s been calling me.

The Call of the River

I live near the Chattahoochee River, which winds through the state of Georgia. A small, inconspicuous spring in the mountains of North Georgia grows into a river that winds for hundreds of miles and completes its journey in the Gulf of Mexico. 

If you’ve never seen a natural spring, that’s not surprising. It begins as an unnoticeable trickle—hidden in the woods, often overlooked, yet carrying the quiet power to become something vast. Deep below the ground are reservoirs that collect the waters that fall from the sky. Slowly, these aquifers fill, and the water makes its way to the surface.

Hidden Things, Big Things

Contemplating this natural spring, quietly bringing forth enough water to create and fill a river that is as extensive as the Chattahoochee, has me thinking about the hidden things of God. The outward signs that will eventually reveal what is occurring underground, what no one can see, are extraordinary. Hidden things produce big things! 

What God grows in hidden places—the unseen prayers, the quiet persistence, the desires He plants deep within us—will one day flow outward in ways we could never have imagined.

Let it Flow

If God has stirred a desire, a dream, or a longing to do, create, or build something, don’t be discouraged by time and the outward appearance that nothing is happening. That small, insignificant spring in the mountains of north Georgia had the power and the capacity to not only create a river, but keep it flowing for tens of millions of years.

The spring doesn’t doubt its purpose—it simply bubbles up and flows. It receives and then pours out. So too with you: trust that what God has planted deep within will flow, in His time. What begins as hidden and unseen is often God’s most profound work, starting underground, in silence.