In the same week the world shut down, a book about the heart of Jesus quietly showed up.

Church buildings were empty.

Pastors were preaching to cameras. Fear was spreading. And millions of Christians were discovering just how tired their souls really were.

Then came Gentle and Lowly—a book with a simple but needed message: Jesus does not move away from the weary; He moves toward them.

The Fear and Trembling of the Manuscript

But here’s the backstory: In May 2019, Dane Ortlund submitted the manuscript for Gentle and Lowly with what he later described as “fear and trembling.”

At the time, Dane was not pastoring a church. He was a publishing executive at Crossway, where he had spent years in the world of books, theology, and the ESV Bible.

In fact, he originally thought this was the kind of book he should wait until he was sixty to write.

But someone encouraged him not to wait. If the message was burning in him now, maybe the church needed it now.

Dane could not have known that within a year, the world would be locked down.

He could not have known pastors would be carrying burdens they had never imagined.

He could not have known churches would need a fresh vision of the heart of Christ in one of the most disorienting ministry seasons in modern history.

But God knew.

From Author to Shepherd

And the timing did not stop with the book. In the middle of that same global crisis, the church Dane had attended for thirteen years asked him to become their senior pastor. He was ordained in October 2020.

His first pastorate began not in a calm season, but in the middle of a storm.

The man who had just written about the gentle and lowly heart of Christ was now being asked to embody that heart for a weary congregation—not just as an author or a theologian, but as a shepherd.

The Lesson for Pastors

Pastor, there is something deeply encouraging about that. Because so much of ministry feels mistimed.

• The sermon comes before you feel ready.
• The call comes when you feel stretched.
• The crisis comes when you feel empty.

But Dane’s story reminds us that God’s timing is rarely obvious in the moment.

Often, it only becomes clear in hindsight. The book was not early. The pastorate was not late. And the burden was not wasted. God was forming a message in one season that would serve the church in the next.

That is how ministry often works.

What God is doing in you today may be how He plans to strengthen someone else tomorrow. So if your current season feels heavy, hidden, or badly timed, do not assume God is absent.

He may be preparing you for a kind of ministry you cannot yet see.

Join Us at PREACH26

And if you are a pastor who wants to sit under Dane Ortlund’s teaching in person, Dane will be one of our featured speakers at PREACH26—our first-ever preaching conference happening October 6–8 in The Woodlands, Texas.

You can learn more and register at preach26.com.

I’m Justin Trapp, and this has been Ministry Minute.