Become a Creator today!Start creating today - Share your story with the world!
Start for free
00:00:00
00:00:01
Ep. 26 - God, I Thought I Was Ready — So Why Not Me?
18 Plays6 days ago
In this episode, Ken Freire and Patrick Lowndes unpack the disappointment that comes when you’ve been faithful, prepared, and prayerful—yet still get passed over for the promotion or opportunity you were hoping for. They dismantle the subtle lie that faithfulness guarantees advancement and replace it with three grounding truths about God’s providence, protection, and character formation. If you’ve ever prayed, worked hard, and still heard “not yet,” this conversation will help you trust that God is more committed to forming you into Christ than fast-tracking your career.
Timestamps
- 00:00 – Introduction: “God, I Thought I Was Ready—So Why Not Me?”
The emotional weight of rejection, job search fatigue, and unmet expectations after performance reviews. - 02:00 – The False Belief: Faithfulness Guarantees Advancement
How subtle prosperity thinking can creep into our view of promotions and answered prayers. - 04:10 – Truth #1: God’s Providence Knows What’s Best
Understanding God’s sovereignty, glory, and our good—even when the answer is no. - 07:15 – Truth #2: God May Be Protecting You
How closed doors can shield you from pride, burnout, misalignment, or missed future opportunities. - 09:25 – Truth #3: God Is Preparing Your Character
Disappointment as a forge for competence, humility, dependency, and Spirit-led maturity. - 12:20 – Replacing the Lie with Truth
God is more committed to forming you into the image of Christ than fast-tracking your career.
Recommended
![Ep. 23 - Getting Promoted [2026]: Show Proof of Value image](https://media.zencastr.com/cdn-cgi/image/width=112,quality=85/image-files/630c9f06819f8b3dba5fa460/90d98cfc-639d-40ba-836c-1da926a16604.png)
Transcript
Intro
Introduction to Buried Talent
00:00:08
Ken Freire
Welcome to Buried Talent, the show for young professionals that tears down false beliefs about faith and work so you can unbury your God-given talent right where you are.
00:00:16
Patrick
Yeah.
00:00:18
Ken Freire
I'm Ken Freire and here with me, my awesome co-host Patrick Lowndes. And today we're talking about, God, I thought I was ready, so why not me?
Facing Job Disappointment
00:00:28
Ken Freire
Patrick, this is gonna be a good one because a lot of people are excited, have been working faithful, they've been doing a lot of stuff, but for whatever reason, they get hit with disappointment because they got passed up from a job position or they didn't get offered the job.
00:00:44
Ken Freire
And time and time again, they're just hit with disappointment. And they're wondering, God, when are you going to use me or help me out here? And so that's what we're talking about today, Patrick. Looking forward to it.
00:00:56
Patrick
Yeah. Yeah. and And there's, there's a lot going on, um, in the job market these days. And just the, um, I've got a couple of friends that are on the active search mode right now, and it's just, there's a lot of fatigue. I mean, one guy was telling me, yeah, I get told no and like rejected declined one or two times a day.
00:01:16
Patrick
Right. And so it's a, it's like an emotional marathon. Um, if you're out there searching for a job, but there's also, if you've got a job, it might not be quite so emotional, just getting that constant stream of rejection.
Performance Review Challenges
00:01:30
Patrick
And so today we're going to unpack, like, you know, we've just been talking the last several episodes about, you know, that performance review and like, this is your moment. You go, you know, go to bat for yourself. But,
00:01:39
Patrick
More than half of you, if i if I'm just guessing, maybe 75% of you are not going to get an amazing outcome. You're going to get like a meh or a not yet outcome. And so we're going to address that head on. What do you do with that? if that if you get Obviously, praise God, if you get like a great killer you know raise or promotion or a nice a great career conversation. But if if it's more of a meh answer, what do we do with that, Ken? let's Let's dive into it. And what's the false belief that we're really getting at behind there?
00:02:07
Ken Freire
Yeah, I think when we get here with a lot of disappointment, you know, in Proverbs, it says um hope deferred makes the heart sick, but a longing fulfilled is a tree of life.
00:02:17
Patrick
Yep.
00:02:17
Ken Freire
And I think one of the lies that we hear when we feel like we hit that disappointment is if I'm faithful and prepared then I'm sure to get the advancement.
00:02:31
Ken Freire
God will orchestrate his patterns and like give me an absolute yes, this is gonna happen. And I think many times this happens with our prayers too, right? Just as a side note where we think, well, prayed about it, so God's surely gonna answer this prayer and he doesn't. So there's a lot of disappointment.
00:02:48
Ken Freire
and And the hard part about this is that it sounds biblical, right? Because Luke 16, 10 says, if you're faithful in the small things, you'll be faithful in the big things. So you're you're expecting, you're like, God, I was faithful. I've been diligent. I've been doing this stuff.
00:03:01
Ken Freire
Yet I didn't get the promotion or I didn't get the next thing that I was hoping
Rethinking Faith and Advancement
00:03:06
Ken Freire
to get. So that's what we're looking at and and analyzing as the false belief.
00:03:08
Patrick
Yeah.
00:03:12
Patrick
and And you probably heard us long enough to know, like we're coming from a more reformed ah kind of conservative view of scripture here. So like, we're not talking about, um you know, i just got to name that seed. Like God's going to provide seed for the sower. He's just going to name that thing. in god's And I'm going to claim that next job and that title. Like we're not doing name it and claim it prosperity gospel stuff. Like if we look at scripture, God is on the throne.
00:03:35
Patrick
Our job is to be faithful. But, but man, can like, we really got to anchor ourselves in some, in what does the Bible actually teach us about how to walk with God in what his will is, which many times, i think I can't remember someone who said this, but they said, if you, if you keep asking God for things and God is always bowing to your plan, he's you probably have created and invented another God that's not actually the God of the Bible. like If your God never disagrees with you or your way of life or your plan, probably is not God.
00:04:10
Patrick
And it's just a super convicting thing to think about.
00:04:11
Ken Freire
Yeah.
00:04:13
Patrick
So given that, um yeah, how how do we step into this?
00:04:18
Ken Freire
Yeah, so so I think the first one, and it's a good segue, kind of what you talked about is, if this is the lie that we feel like almost prosperity gospel, really, where we think if we're faithful, we're going to get the promotion, right? there's That's the lie. There's three truths that we want to anchor you to. And you started talking about the first one, but I'll hit us with it, is that truth number one is God in his providence knows what's best.
00:04:42
Ken Freire
Now, ah not a lot of people use the word providence these days, right? But this is about God's sovereignty. Like he, knowing all things, he's omniscient, he's omnipotent, right? He's all-knowing, he's all-powerful.
00:04:55
Ken Freire
He knows what's best for us. He knows what's going to bring him the most amount of glory and the most amount of good for you. And I want to make sure you guys, the people listening to this, hear both of those.
00:05:06
Ken Freire
God's glory and
God's Sovereignty and Career Paths
00:05:07
Ken Freire
you're good. It's not like God's going to be like, hey, I'm going to be for your glory and you're going to be like dismayed, utterly betrayed. Like he's not going to do that. He's going to look at both.
00:05:15
Patrick
Less out.
00:05:17
Ken Freire
Yeah, left out. He's like, no, no, no. Your glory or his glory are good. And in his providence, he sees everything that's going to happen and he knows what's best for us.
00:05:31
Ken Freire
in this time.
00:05:31
Patrick
Mm-hmm.
00:05:31
Ken Freire
So you have to trust the Lord that like, if you didn't get that promotion yet, that he knows what he's protecting you for. Yeah.
00:05:39
Patrick
Yeah, and maybe that that promotion is not actually what he wants anyway. I like to think about it like um a table analogy. Picture like you and I are living like little ponds on this table, and we're always moving one direction down the continuum of time. So there it is, the table of time, always moving one direction. god When we ask questions about, oh is God actually orchestrating my next step? Does he know what's going on?
00:06:01
Patrick
like we'd like we're asking those questions about his sovereignty as if he is limited by the table of time moving in the same direction like we are. And like, like, it's just so comforting to realize he's, he's eternal past, eternal present.
00:06:09
Ken Freire
Yeah.
00:06:14
Patrick
He's out, he's not even on the table. He's walking around the table. He can go back in time. He can go ahead of time. So it's almost not even helpful to think about, you know, uh, like to to get too bent around, um, like, oh, well, he already knows everything.
00:06:27
Patrick
So therefore like what, you know, I'm just going to throw it all away. So I think we have, we actually can have comfort as Christians knowing that he's outside the table of time and he actually gets to work on all around those things in his good providence, in his good sovereignty.
00:06:42
Patrick
And like you said, it's for our good. So it's good.
00:06:45
Ken Freire
Yeah. Patrick, you you remind me of ah the movie Interstellar. I don't know if you guys have watched it in a long time and you haven't, I just watched it about a few months ago and I i forgot how much I love it. um i love all those kinds of movies, right?
00:06:57
Ken Freire
But that concept of time, like we're in time, like God is both transcendent, meaning he's out of time, but he's also imminent.
00:07:03
Patrick
Yep.
00:07:04
Ken Freire
He's in time. And that's the thing that we can have comfort in that like, he's with us, he's for us, but he sees all these things.
00:07:05
Patrick
That's right.
00:07:11
Ken Freire
So if you're feeling downcast today, just know, man, God in his providence knows what's best for you and is going to be protecting you.
00:07:19
Patrick
Yeah.
00:07:20
Ken Freire
Patrick, what's truth number two?
00:07:23
Patrick
right. Truth number two is God may be protecting you. This one's hard to believe because you and I might think, oh, if I get this thing, like this is this is for my my best good and for God's greatest glory. And of course, you're not on the throne. You don't see all the implications of everything. You might be in the wrong place at the wrong time.
00:07:41
Patrick
And we could share a bunch of like stories where God sovereignly, you know, or orchestrated this or or that thing from happening. But think about it for a second. Like, There could be a promotion or a next step or a raise. And God's like, I don't want to trust you with an extra 10% bump in your base salary. I don't want to i don't want to trust you with more stuff. Or I actually don't want you to get the stock package because I actually want you to move to a different company and you don't even know what that company is, but I'm going to introduce you to them next month.
00:08:09
Patrick
Right. And so sometimes again, um God may be protecting you. And so there's actually, there's faith involved in getting a know because a no to what you thought was is still an answer. Sometimes people say, well, God didn't answer. Well, he did. His answer was no. And the question is, what is he up to he could be protecting you even. So think about there could be like that a next role you wanted to get or the next, you know, pay increase. It could have, maybe it could have exposed some pride that you still haven't dealt with.
00:08:38
Patrick
Maybe there's more pressure that you can't quite handle yet. And God wants to refine you further in your current role. And it also could just be you've maybe ah more closely associated your hope and your savior in the the career path more than him.
00:08:54
Patrick
I think there's lots of stuff. And there's also potential burnout. Like I remember when I was a sales rep and they kept inviting me like, hey, you want to be a manager? i knew my path and I knew the answer was like, God, no, like that's not for you. And it was because he wanted me to go and start my own company.
00:09:09
Patrick
And I would have been burnt out if i was a sales manager. So God was kind of, ah what was sort of there and helping me say no. But that's the second one is God might be protecting you.
Character Building through Disappointments
00:09:19
Patrick
So be on, be interpreting those, those, even those no's and not yet with God, like, how are you, how is this for my good, even if I don't see it yet?
00:09:28
Patrick
Right. So that's, it that's the second truth.
00:09:28
Ken Freire
Yeah.
00:09:30
Patrick
Ken, get us with the third truth.
00:09:32
Ken Freire
Yeah. The third truth is that when as God is protecting you, and you' you've alluded to this, but truth number three is that God is also preparing your character. You know, when he exposes certain things in our hearts, in our lives, it's for a reason. It's because we're called to be created in his image and be conformed into it.
00:09:52
Ken Freire
And there are times that there are things that we're just not ready for. And this this one might sting a little bit, to be honest, if if you guys are listening to this, because your boss or your hiring managers or whoever it is, they might not tell you this. Right. They might not tell you the truth of why you didn't get the position over someone else.
00:10:10
Ken Freire
But they might have had conversations in the background saying, you know what? Ken's a character is not up to par with what we wanted, or he doesn't have the skill sets yet that they need. There might be some deficiencies that you have, both from a competency and also a character standpoint, that you now have to work through.
00:10:29
Ken Freire
and And that's okay. like I want you to know none of us are perfect, and it happens. But God, in those moments, is preparing your character in two ways that I want you to do. Number one is when you see the gap.
00:10:42
Ken Freire
of deficiency is saying, okay, this is an opportunity to level up. But the second one, and this is the one that we sometimes miss, is that when we face disappointment, God is preparing in us the character of dependency on him.
00:10:58
Ken Freire
How are we trusting God in the midst of all the trials, all the pain that comes to us? I'm reminded in in the gospels where Jesus says, like, in this world, we will have trouble, but take heart, I have overcome the world.
00:11:11
Ken Freire
And if we're honest, us as Western Christians, everything is so easy for us. I mean, yes, there are things that are sometimes hard, but for the most part, it's really easy. So we forget how much character is forged in the crucible of suffering. And if we're not going through that suffering sometimes, we just get comfortable. We just start to like live a life of ease. So when we go through these disappointment,
00:11:41
Ken Freire
disappointing times, the thing that we have to realize is that those disappointing times will make us either withdraw, they may want to gossip, compare, disengage, right? That's our flesh talking, but the Lord is saying, no, no, no, I want you to walk in the Spirit.
00:11:57
Ken Freire
And in the Spirit, that means you're going to serve anyways, you're going to improve anyways, you're going to encourage the person.
00:11:57
Patrick
Yeah.
00:12:03
Patrick
Yep.
00:12:03
Ken Freire
who got it, right? Imagine if all of a sudden the person who got it, you were the right hand person, like you were actually blessing them and making sure they win no matter what happens.
00:12:15
Ken Freire
All of a sudden, people are going be like, oh, wait a minute, you were you were supposed to get that promotion, but now you are blessing that person.
00:12:15
Patrick
Yeah.
00:12:23
Ken Freire
God sees that and God knows that and he he's going to trust you.
00:12:24
Patrick
Yeah.
00:12:27
Ken Freire
Remember, he's
Preview of Work as Ministry
00:12:28
Ken Freire
building a character inside of you.
00:12:29
Patrick
and we're And Ken, that's a great tee-up for the next episode that we're going to hit on, that you need to you need to view your work as as ministry, as the opportunity to bring, to yeah I'll say to reveal the kingdom of God that's already there. It's our representative to to show people what that's like. And so kind of wrapping this episode up, again, this lie of like, God, if I'm ready, like, yeah, God will promote me. I'm going to get that thing. going to get what I wanted. We need to replace that with God is more committed to me being formed into the image of Christ than he is committed to fast tracking me.
00:13:06
Patrick
right He wants me to be formed. He wants me to do a better job beholding what his son is like so that my coworkers can see and experience his goodness. right so we are gonna Before we jump too much into that one, you're going catch us up for next week on the Buried Talent Podcast. Ken, thanks for kicking this off today. Let's go one click deeper on next week's episode. Until then, faithfully carry Christ into your workplace, and we'll see you next week.