I'm Coming Out

The Person on the Other Side of the Process

Most people hear the words "I'm coming out" and think about making an announcement.

I hear something different.

I hear the sound of someone emerging.

Not emerging because life has been easy.

Not emerging because every prayer has been answered.

Not emerging because every problem has been solved.

Emerging because the process has done its work.

There are seasons in life when it feels as though everything is happening beneath the surface. You keep showing up. You keep doing the work. You keep carrying responsibilities. You keep navigating challenges. Yet there is little evidence that anything is changing.

At least that's what it looks like from the outside.

But beneath the surface, something is happening.

Perspective is changing.

Strength is being built.

Wisdom is being gained.

Character is being refined.

Faith is being stretched.

You are becoming.

The truth is that most transformations do not happen overnight. They happen quietly.

They happen in ordinary moments.

They happen through disappointments we did not choose.

They happen through detours we did not expect.

They happen through lessons we did not want to learn.

The process has a way of introducing us to parts of ourselves we never knew existed.

Looking back, I realize that many of the seasons I wanted to escape were the very seasons that were shaping me.

The waiting taught me patience.

The uncertainty taught me trust.

The setbacks taught me resilience.

The closed doors taught me discernment.

The stretching taught me growth.

And somewhere along the way, I stopped focusing on when the season would end and started paying attention to what the season was producing.

Then I realized something.

The process was never just trying to change my circumstances.

The process was trying to change me.

I spent so much time praying for doors to open that I almost missed what was happening behind the door of my own heart.

I prayed for opportunities.

The process produced capacity.

I prayed for answers.

The process produced wisdom.

I prayed for relief.

The process produced endurance.

I prayed for arrival.

The process produced transformation.

What if the greatest work of the season was never the outcome?

What if the greatest work of the season was the person being developed while waiting for the outcome?

That is why this reflection is not really about coming out.

It is about coming through.

Coming through disappointment.

Coming through uncertainty.

Coming through growth.

Coming through healing.

Coming through becoming.

Because when you come through a season, you are never the same person who entered it.

You carry different wisdom.

Different perspective.

Different strength.

Different understanding.

You become the person on the other side of the process.

Perhaps that is where many of us find ourselves today.

Not finished.

Not perfect.

Not fully arrived.

But emerging.

And maybe that is enough.

The Revelation

Sometimes we spend so much time looking for evidence that our circumstances have changed that we fail to recognize the evidence that we have changed.

The process leaves fingerprints.

In the way you think.

In the way you respond.

In the way you trust.

In the way you carry yourself.

In the way you see what you could not see before.

The person standing here today is not the same person who entered the season.

And that may be the very proof that the process worked.

The Invitation

What if this season is not asking you to focus on what you have lost?

What if it is inviting you to recognize who you have become?

Maybe it's time to stop looking at what the process took from you and start appreciating what the process produced within you.

After all, the person coming out of this season is not the same person who entered it.

And that may be the greatest gift of all.

Every season carries a lesson.

Every process leaves a mark.

Every ending reveals the person who was being formed all along.

Journey Through the Seasons With Me.

To Everything There Is a Season.

It's Your Season. Go and Live!

-Dr. Tasheka L. Green