When we start taking obedient steps, one of the first hang-ups we encounter is the temptation to take God’s plan and minimize it to fit our understanding. We become confused once events don’t go the way we thought they would. We might have perfectly understood the assignment God gave us; we just assumed it would happen the way we envisioned. Take my story, for example.

After I had been living in L.A. for three years, pursuing my dream of being a television producer, a sudden yes led me to a surprising new chapter—serving on staff at a church in Southern California. In 2021, I took on the role of director of communications and experiences and joined the weekend teaching team. This shift was unexpected, taking me from the world of television production and running my own company to preaching the gospel in a local church setting. I hadn’t anticipated God’s plan to move me so quickly from one season to another, but I leaned into His guidance, knowing He was directing my path.

When life begins to settle and we find ourselves in a rhythm, it’s easy to make plans that seem logical and comfortable. We start building according to our vision, not always pausing to ensure our plans align with God’s will. But sometimes God calls us out of that comfort, inviting us into a journey that we hadn’t foreseen but that will ultimately lead us to a deeper understanding of purpose.

God’s plans often exceed what we can imagine, though they don’t always come packaged the way we expect. Through the shifts and changes, I’ve begun to trust His guidance more deeply, knowing that each yes He asks of me prepares me for the next stage He has in mind.

Part of having an intimate relationship with Jesus is that, in time, you become familiar with the ways He speaks to you. It doesn’t happen the same way each time, but when God is trying to get my attention, He makes it known through specific means. Before I tell you how God recently uprooted me, I think it’s best that I share how I got there. Going back to April 2021, I was in a comfortable rhythm but began to sense that I was about to enter a season of transition yet again. As you know, I like to clear up unknowns as quickly as possible, so the instant I realized God was preparing me for something new, I started working to figure out what He was saying.

I knew in my heart that He was sending me to Nashville because I loved it there. It just made the most sense to me. God was transitioning me to a place that brought me great joy! Ha! I couldn’t have been more wrong. I went to visit Nashville, and God made it very clear He wasn’t calling me there. This journey of yes often means forsaking our desires and saying yes to God’s. Those may sound like tough decisions, but in my experience, they end up being the greatest decisions I’ve ever made. They always produce a life more fulfilling than if I had chosen to do things my way. In this case, choosing to follow God’s voice led me to a dream I didn’t even know I had.

Long story short, God moved me from L.A. to the unfamiliar town of Murrieta, California, to join the senior leadership team at Centerpoint Church. He planted me there for almost two years. I didn’t know anyone. I went from attending and serving a nondenominational church with predominantly millennial African American members to a large conservative Free Methodist church with a membership that was predominantly Caucasian. It may not have made any sense on paper, but it was the exact thing God wanted me to do.

L.A. is known as the place people go to chase their dreams—a city buzzing with possibilities, where aspirations feel within reach. For me, living in L.A. was all about working in the entertainment industry as a content producer. Less than a year after I launched my production company, though, God had other plans and led me three hours away from the city and its endless resources. It was a move I never would have chosen for myself, but it perfectly aligned with the life He had destined for me.

I was finding success in my production career and making strides in my field, but I had allowed L.A. to shape my identity. My accomplishments had subtly become a distraction, pulling me away from the direction God was nudging me toward: ministry. Looking back, I realize that while L.A. offered me opportunities, it also became a hindrance to the greater purpose God was calling me to fulfill. His way was different, and I finally understood that whether our callings unfold inside the four walls of a church or out in the world, we’re all ultimately called to ministry.

At that point in my life, God was guiding me toward the path I’d been resisting for years. I was comfortable serving Him behind the scenes, helping everything run smoothly, but He saw more in me. He knew there were hidden gifts that could emerge only in a different setting, one that put a demand on those parts of myself I hadn’t entirely discovered. Moving away from L.A. and into inland California, I no longer had the noise of constant opportunities and exposure around me. In this quieter space, God was able to reshape my vision of who I was, allowing me to step into a calling I’d previously overlooked.

I originally joined the staff at Centerpoint with the understanding that my role would be behind the scenes. But shortly after I started, I became a dominant voice at church gather-ings. I went from hosting during service to preaching frequently. If you had told me back in 2018 that my move to L.A. would set me on a path to becoming a preacher, I would have bet a large sum of money there wasn’t an ounce of truth to it.

Here is what I’ve grown to understand: Sometimes God sends you to a place where the environment calls something new out of you, something you wouldn’t have discovered where you were before. That is exactly what happened to me. God changed my environment because the former one was supporting who I was instead of who He was calling me to be-come. I thought God was sending me to the new church for them, but it turned out the assignment was also for me.

God sees the full picture of our lives, so when He says it’s time to go, we must trust Him enough to make the move and rely on the truth that He is with us. It’s important to approach life with open hands, remaining ready for God to make changes and call us to new directions.

Excerpted from The Journey of Yes by Brenda Palmer Copyright © 2025 by Brenda Palmer. Published by WaterBrook, an imprint of Penguin Random House Christian Publishing Group, LLC. Used by permission.

Brenda Palmer is an innovative preacher, producer of The Same Room’s podcast, host of Life In Perspective Podcast and co-host of In The Room Podcast, and leader of the Come Alive movement, which hosts pop-up events to create spaces for people to encounter Jesus. A graduate of Mississippi Valley State University and Syracuse University, Brenda is an emerging millennial thought leader with a passion for helping people unlock their purpose as they surrender to God’s plan.