So…. I fell off a ladder at the weekend.

Don’t worry — I’m fine. A little bruised (okay, very bruised), but nothing broken. Still, it got me thinking.

I missed a step. Unfortunately for my bruised body, it was the first step at the top of the ladder rather than the last step at the bottom. Everything unfolded in slow motion. I had time to make various attempts to reach out and try to stop or break my fall, hoping at least to ensure I landed on my well-padded bottom and did not hit my head! The man who had been holding the ladder had instinctively reached out and grabbed my ankle as I fell past him, so I ended up in a heap on the floor with one leg held in the air, and thanking God I was wearing jeans.

It was an accident. I didn’t mean to miss the step, and I have no idea how I did, or why I allowed my centre of gravity to shift without having a firm footing. I was rushing – I needed to catch some people before they left the building and had been side-tracked fixing a problem that had required me to be at the top of the ladder.

But isn’t that what we do so often in life? We take a step before we are ready, assuming we have got it right. We’re in such a hurry to get to the next thing — the exciting thing — that we skip the bit in between. The steadying. The preparing.

My daughter recently went on an adventure holiday. She paraglided over the Alps and bungee jumped into a canyon. But she didn’t jump off those mountains before she’d had her training or before her safety harness was in place and had been checked. That would be crazy.

We don’t take a cake out of the oven 5 minutes into baking it and start to eat it. We don’t (usually) jump out of the shower before we’ve rinsed off the shampoo.

But with life? We sometimes try to skip ahead. We want the final scene without the full storyline.

I was reminded of this when leading a children’s discipleship group recently. We talked about destiny and purpose, using an old set of architect’s plans I had for a home extension that never got built. We explored how God has a blueprint for our lives — detailed, deliberate, and full of hope.

“ ‘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 hope and a future.’ ” Jeremiah 29:11

We dreamed together — quite a lot of these dreams featured football stardom and big houses. I’m all for big dreams, risk-taking and stepping out of our comfort zones – for running our race to the best of our ability as if to win. But the problem often with big dreams, especially God-given big dreams, is that we can be in such a rush to get there that we miss the steps along the way that are designed for our growth, and to keep us and others safe.

Joseph in the Bible (Genesis 37-46) was a man with big dreams. He saw powerful visions of leadership, of his family bowing before him. God had shown him a glimpse of what his future had in store. Good, exciting, BIG plans. But instead of stepping into instant greatness, he was thrown into a pit, sold into slavery, falsely accused, imprisoned, and forgotten.

Not exactly the fast track to success.

But God hadn’t forgotten. Those seemingly detoured steps — each one — were shaping Joseph into the man who could stand before Pharaoh, interpret dreams with humility, bringing glory to God, and save not just his family, but the whole of Egypt.

Maybe Joseph rushed too. Maybe when he shared his dreams with his brothers, he was arrogant, just desperate to see things happen. Maybe he thought the dreams would fast-track him to leadership and authority, and his brothers would instantly step aside. He was interpreting the dreams God had given him, his way.

But he needed the long way round — the character-building, heart-shaping path — to be ready.

I’ve been there. Wanting to fast-forward through the waiting. Sulking at the delay. Annoyed when friends told me to trust God’s timing. Trying to speed God along because, quite frankly, the waiting was dull, but in contrast, the fulfillment of the plan seemed quite exciting!  Chomping at the bit, and not enjoying the character training God seems to think needs to happen first.  I’m the kind of person who sometimes reads the end of a book first (I know, I know). But every time, I miss the richness of the journey.

What Joseph found (and what I have found) was that God had a journey for him to go on and a lot for him to learn before he was ready.

Looking back now, I can see God’s wisdom in the wait. I wouldn’t have been ready back then for the things I was so eager for, and I’m still not ready for many of them now. He’s refined me through triumphs and trials, surprising detours and painful delays, and continues to do so. I’ve taken missteps and missed steps — but God has always caught me, redirected me, and used me anyway. Just like he did with Joseph.

History supports this. When the Titanic sailed full-speed through iceberg waters on a calm, moonless night, disaster struck. Under pressure to maintain a schedule, warnings were missed. Precautions overlooked. There was a refusal to slow down and pay attention.

Or take Mike Tyson — the youngest heavyweight boxing champion at 20, with over $300 million in earnings… and bankrupt at 37. Without the right tools or guidance, his was a meteoric rise, followed by a crushing fall.

Dreams are good. Big dreams are great — especially God-given ones. But when we try to make them happen our way, our speed, we risk disaster. We need to seek God every step of the way, whether things are going well or seem to be going very wrong, looking to what he is teaching us and leaning into his timing.

That doesn’t mean we sit around doing nothing, passively waiting for God to drop everything into our laps. Joseph didn’t mope through his setbacks — he served faithfully wherever he landed, and God blessed him each step of the way.

So maybe the question isn’t “How fast can I get there?” but “Am I planting my feet firmly on the step God’s placed in front of me right now?”

Because missed steps hurt. I know! But thankfully, God’s grace is greater — and he never wastes a fall.