Blessing in the unexpected
When I first got diagnosed with coeliac disease, it came off the back of years of chronic health issues. Since I was 18, I’d struggled with psoriasis — painful, itchy sores that affected my sleep, focus, body image, and self-worth. By 2021, I thought I’d turn a corner. I had plans: travel the world, get healthy, and finally build the confidence to ask someone out.
But “many are the plans in a person’s heart, but it is the Lord’s purpose that prevails.” — Proverbs 19:21
God flipped everything on its head — in the best way.
Instead of gaining health and confidence before love, I found love in the middle of weakness. I met the girl who would become my wife. Her care for me deepened not in spite of my illness, but because of it. And somehow, despite being newly diagnosed coeliac (and unknowingly diabetic at the time), we fell in love, got married, and travelled the world — together.
We’ve been to Italy, Austria, Czechia, Niagara Falls, New York, DC, Florida, Vegas, San Francisco, Japan (twice), Malaysia, Singapore, South Korea, and even squeezed in trips to New Zealand and Tasmania.
I don’t say this to boast in what we’ve done — only to show the scale of what I thought was impossible. During that first year of coeliac, even with an incredible girlfriend and completed cleared skin (a miracle, according to my dermatologist), I was still miserable.
Life felt small. Unsafe. I believed the world was now full of invisible traps. The veiled hope that I could be healthy and in control was irrevocably shattered.
Japan and Italy felt like dreams I’d never safely touch.
But “with God all things are possible.” — Matthew 19:26
Slowly, God opened my eyes.
He knew my wife had always wanted to go to Japan and South Korea. He also knew that my desire to serve others — even at my own expense — would become the very tool He’d use to reshape my thinking. If we had to go to Japan? Suddenly, we discovered it was full of gluten-free options.
If we had to make South Korea work with Type 1 diabetes and coeliac? A woman literally came out of her restaurant, looked at us, and said, “Gluten free?” We ended up eating some of the best fried chicken we’ve ever had — gluten free, in a backstreet alley, in a city I thought I’d never survive in.
“Your Father knows what you need before you ask Him.” — Matthew 6:8
“He who did not spare His own Son, but gave Him up for us all — how will He not also, along with Him, graciously give us all things?” — Romans 8:32
Here’s what I’m learning:
- Don’t let the challenges of life stop you from trusting God with your dreams.
- The limitations are real — but so is His power made perfect in weakness (2 Corinthians 12:9).
- He’s not surprised by your story. He’s already in the parts you fear most.
“Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge Him, and He will make your paths straight.” — Proverbs 3:5–6
He meets us in despair not just to fix what’s broken, but to love us there.
To reshape what we thought life had to look like, and to lead us into something fuller.
“For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you a future and a hope.” — Jeremiah 29:11
Man makes plans — God laughs.
But His laugh isn’t cruel. It’s kind. It’s the laugh of a Father who sees what’s coming and is already working good from what we thought was lost.
This wasn’t the life I imagined. It’s better.
Because when God blesses you in the unexpected, it’s never second best.