The Hidden Price of a Miracle: How to Pivot When Life Doesn't Make Sense

You know that feeling at the end of the day when you’re utterly exhausted? You’ve run the errands, done the work, cooked the food—maybe it was an Uber Eats day, God bless those delivery drivers on their missionary journeys through the city—and yet, as you finally lay your head on the pillow, a familiar lie creeps in: I still didn’t do enough.

Whether you’re a mother navigating the constant adjustments of raising children, or a believer staring at a life that looks radically different than the white picket fence you prayed for, you know the sting of unmet expectations. We want normalcy. We want stability. We ask God to root us in a place where everything is safe and predictable.

But if you want a miracle, there is a hidden price you have to pay.

Understanding is not a prerequisite to submission.

I’ve had a front-row seat to this kind of miraculous endurance my entire life. I was raised by a single mother with five kids, and we were very poor. I watched my mom try to be both a dad and a mom. And for the last two decades, I’ve watched my wife, Julie, navigate the incredible weight of motherhood. We experienced the absolute heartbreak of miscarriage—two of them between our 19-year-old and our 12-year-old daughters. But both of our children are miracles today, and they testify to the power of God.

If you want to understand what it actually takes to carry a miracle, we have to look at the greatest mother in all of scripture: Mary. She was found physically, mentally, emotionally, and spiritually suitable to birth the Messiah and see Him all the way through to the cross. Her life is a masterclass in what it takes to endure.

The Power of the Spiritual Pivot

When Mary is presented with the seemingly impossible task of birthing the Savior, we read her response in the first chapter of Luke. She doesn’t ask for a blueprint. She simply says, "I am the Lord's servant. May everything you have said about me come true".

One of the hardest things in life is to come into agreement with what God says about you. It’s almost easier to believe the negative. If someone calls you dumb, you might just agree because you remember all the dumb decisions you’ve made. But coming into agreement with a divine identity when you don’t feel qualified? That requires a total surrender.

As Pastor Mike Signorelli plainly states, "understanding is not a prerequisite to submission". Mary didn’t understand how God was going to do it. She just agreed to the pivot.

You might not be able to choose your physical address, but you can choose your spiritual address.

To pivot in basketball means you keep one foot locked in a specific position while the other foot rotates and moves. Mary locked her foot into the mission of God, but she had to constantly pivot her circumstances. She went from a borrowed stable in Bethlehem to taking flight in Egypt to escape a murderous census, then back to Nazareth, then traveling to Jerusalem. It was a life of constant adjustment.

I think about the early days of V1 Church. My family had downsized to a 600-square-foot apartment in New York City. We didn't have laundry, so my wife had to drag our clothes down the street. We hit a streak where we got a flat tire every single Sunday for six weeks straight. On top of that, our daughter Everly had broken her arm jumping off recliners at our movie-theater church location.

It wasn’t the white picket fence. But we had planted our foot in the mission.

Listen to me: some people have a nice house but don't know how to build a home. Pastor Mike Signorelli preaches, "I'd rather have the presence of God in a small apartment to have the peace of God that rules and reigns in that place than to have a big old empty house full of demons". You have to lock your foot in position and declare that no matter what changes, you are not changing the mission.

Treasuring God’s Word Over Public Whispers

By the time we get to Luke chapter two, the Bible reveals another key to Mary’s endurance: "But Mary treasured up all these things, pondering them in her heart".

Mary had to endure the public whispers. Imagine trying to explain to a first-century Jewish community that you conceived a baby immaculately. Yeah, right, Mary. She had to navigate the gossip and the naysayers, but she didn’t ponder their whispers in her heart. She treasured the word of the Lord.

What you treasure, you protect. You have to move the world's words out of your heart and move God's words in.

When you graduate in levels, you also graduate in levels of sacrifice.

Over 15 years ago, before there was a V1 Church, I was in a drunken stupor. I was actively sabotaging my future and destroying my life. My 5-foot-3 wife barricaded the front door of our apartment and looked me in the eye. She said, "Mike, you are not Johnny Cash. You are a global church planter and you will plant many churches and you will not leave this house".

She had treasured up the prophecies spoken over us. She hid them in her heart. Even when I stopped believing it, she believed it. She refused to let my current reality override God's ultimate reality.

The Courage of Presence at the Cross

When you walk with God, the journey doesn't end when things get difficult; that's usually just the prerequisite for the next level of glory. In John chapter 19, we find Mary standing near the cross of Jesus.

Think about this: Peter, a big burly fisherman who worked with his hands and was willing to take a sword and kill somebody, ran away scared. But a little woman named Mary stood at the foot of the cross because she knew who Jesus really was.

There is immense power in presence. It’s the ultimate pain threshold—standing when everyone else has fled. My wife Julie bleeds the gospel and bleeds this church. She has stood through seasons where it felt like everyone else was running.

Years ago, she obeyed the will of the Father to travel to Ukraine to minister at a women's conference. She contracted a severe virus from the water and ended up bedridden, just skin and bones. We thought we were going to lose her. But out of that devastating season, where she just kept smiling and trusting the Great I Am, a song called "I Believe It" was birthed and sung all over the world.

She didn't do it for the charts. She did it because, just like Mary, she said, "Whatever you tell me to do, I'll do it".

God is not just trying to meet your expectations; He is trying to exceed them.

I wonder if when Jesus was in the Garden of Gethsemane, sweating and praying, "If it be possible, let this cup pass me... nevertheless,"—I wonder if He learned that from His mama. I wonder if He saw her stand her ground time and time again and said, I’m going to be like my mama now. I’ll go all the way.

You have a choice right now. You can look at the raw ingredients of your life—the poverty, the brokenness, the mess—and ask God how He could possibly make a miracle out of it. Or you can plant your feet. You can decide that you won't deviate one inch from what God told you.

Stop letting the enemy talk you out of your position. Stop letting the whispers dictate your theology. It gets the darkest right before it gets light. God is well able to do exceedingly and abundantly more than you can think, ask, or imagine.

I am challenging you today: give Him your "yes." A full, unapologetic, fully surrendered yes. Because your "yes" today is going to become your children's "yes" tomorrow. It will travel down the generations. Do not quit now. The cross isn't the end of the story—it's just the part right before the resurrection.

If this resonated, watch the full series at https://youtu.be/h-7Op6OJvzA

Visit a V1 campus at v1.church/times-locations.