Dormancy Isn't Death: Finding Hope When Life Suddenly Changes

It's fall, and I'm loving the colours all around me. But the colours are signs telling us that the plants are preparing for dormancy - a season which appears to be a time of inactivity, but in reality, is just a change in activity. Dormancy is not death. It is a shift in how life expresses itself - a quiet season of preparation for what comes next.

During these times, the focus is no longer on outward growth but on strengthening roots and forming buds - developing what will be needed for the next stage of life. But is this how it appears? No. Oftentimes, we see it as a time of decline. Of loss. It looks like nothing is happening at all. 

A Spiritual Parallel

In the Christian life, we have seasons of dormancy. Times when, after being active in ministry and displaying some beautiful fruit, we are “put on the shelf”. Consider Joseph - faithful in Potiphar's house, yet falsely accused of a crime and thrown into prison (Genesis 39). This may have looked like failure, but to God, it was preparation. 

This truth is not simply theological to me; it's personal.
I've walked this stage of life, and in some ways I still am. 

Let me share a bit of my story. 
I share this not for sympathy, but to help you see God’s purpose in this season.

My Story

Nine years ago, after graduating from seminary with honours, I began full-time pastoral ministry. A few months after our wedding, my wife and I packed our things and moved from Alberta to Nova Scotia, where I had been called to pastor a church in the Annapolis Valley. For three years, I poured myself into ministering to the congregation - preaching, teaching, counselling members, visiting, and leading. People were learning and growing, and there had been positive affirmation. 

But all this came to an end.  

A division arose over the Lord’s Supper: the board believed that anyone could take it, whereas I believed it was for believers only (1 Corinthians 11:17-34). This rift grew deeper and could not be resolved. Two months after my daughter was born, they released me.

For a few months, I was kept waiting until I was called to lead a church in Manitoba. This was during the 2020 crisis, but I tried to serve as best as I could while being hindered by government restrictions. But soon, another division surfaced—this time over whether the church should remain open. I held firmly that the church should remain open to all who want to come (Hebrews 10:24-25). Because there was no cohesion in the council, and having thought I had failed to minister well, I stepped out of the ministry altogether and moved back to Nova Scotia. 

No longer was I pastoring. Instead, God graciously gave me an office job. 

I went from a pastor to a receptionist. 
No more preaching.
No more leading people in worship.
No more visiting or counselling. 

Though I was grateful for a job and a place to live, my life seemed to fade from colour to bleakness. It was a quiet, colourless season - a time when everything familiar had been stripped away.

Like a tree in winter - I felt bare.

The Weight of Dormancy

Have you been there?

It's a season which can be deeply discouraging - when it feels as if you've failed, as if something has been taken from you, and you have been closed off from purpose.

It's easy at these moments to mistake dormancy for punishment.

I know, because I did.

But these seasons are not God's rejection of you; but his time of preparation for you.

The Gardener knows exactly what He is doing. Beneath the surface, He is doing a hidden work—strengthening roots, shaping character, and deepening faith—so that, like a tree in winter, we will be ready for the life and fruit of the next season He brings.

What God Was Teaching Me

What was it that he was teaching me?

• Patience.
• Commitment.
• Trust.

Three things, no doubt, that Joseph had learned as he waited in prison. Trust is strengthened best when there isn’t really much else to lean on.

In your time of waiting, I dare say that this is what he is teaching you as well.

Dormancy is Still Activity

Does this mean there is nothing to do? No.

Outwardly, it may look like a tree is sleeping, but it's still active.
The work has merely changed for the season.
The aim is the roots and not the foliage.
It’s on those things which give us a stronger foundation and next year's fruit.

For me, that meant...

• Learning the scriptures more deeply.
• Understanding my world better.
• And learning how to disciple my family.

Building blocks I’ve come to use now in my ministry.

Character development is often the work that God is doing in these seasons.
If we try to rush ahead, force opportunities, or let a grumbling attitude cause us to have a stiff neck, we may not learn all that we need for the next stage.

A tree that tries to “wake up” in winter can be damaged by the cold. 

God's Timing Is Perfect

We must remember God’s timing.

Take Joseph in prison, for example. Why did God allow him to be imprisoned? So that he could meet the baker and cupbearer and reveal their dreams, showing that he could interpret dreams rightly.

And why wasn’t he released sooner? Why didn’t the cupbearer immediately vouch for Joseph’s innocence after his own release? Because the timing wasn’t right. Pharaoh first needed to experience the dream of seven good years followed by seven bad years.

God’s timing is never our timing—but it is always perfect.
He knows what we don’t...
and He weaves every delay and every hidden season into His greater purpose.

Dormancy is not death - it is the time of hidden growth. Stay rooted. Trust His timing. Waiting is never wasted when God is in it. Spring will come.