Best-selling author and pastor Rick Warren recently discussed some health challenges he’s faced in his current life season. Warren told Ed Stetzer and co-host Daniel Yang on the Stezer ChurchLeaders Podcast, “I’ve been in a two-year battle with an autoimmune disease. It’s not life-threatening. It won’t even last. It lasts between three to five years. But without getting into all the details, the bottom line is it leaves my muscles, all my major muscles, in pain pretty much 24 hours a day.”

Warren, who co-founded Saddleback Church in California with his wife, Kay, in 1980, detailed that his condition has challenged his current ministry goals, including wanting people worldwide to access a Bible and church in their native tongue. He also wants everyone to hear the gospel directly from someone else besides the media and for people worldwide to be prayed for by name at least once in the next 10 years.

He said, “It’s tough walking, working, but it hasn’t changed the way that I think. And the problem is I sometimes feel like I am this brain on fire, and I’m in a wheelchair. I’m not actually in a wheelchair, but the bottom line is, it’s difficult to move around.” Warren continued, “I do believe, as Scripture says, my times are in His hands, and I want to be directly in the center of the will of God. I don’t want to get ahead of His will. I want to get behind His will. I want to be at the pace that He wants. And so everything that happens in our lives is Father-filtered. That’s really part of what’s in the book, too, is that nothing can come into my life without the Heavenly Father’s permission.”

Warren emphasized the importance of trusting God and finding our dreams, which he further details in his new book, “Created to Dream.” The pastor said, “The Bible says you’ll have all kinds of trials. Don’t be surprised by this. This is no accident. It moves to prove your faith. God loves to turn crucifixions into resurrections.” He continued, “While you’re working on the dream, God is working on you. God is more interested actually in what you’re becoming than he is in what you’re doing.”

Warren said, “God’s will is like a scroll. He unrolls a little bit at a time. You’re not ever going to see a map of your whole life. I’ve discovered that timing is everything. It really, really is everything. And God can do more in three months in His timing than I can do in 10 years of my planning.” Warren is the author of the best-selling book “The Purpose Driven Life.”

He also recently published his first book in a decade titled, “Created to Dream: The 6 Phases God Uses to Grow Your Faith.”  In 2022, he stepped down as lead pastor at Saddleback after four decades of ministry. Like Rick Warren, we should all recognize that God’s timing is best. He may not come when you want Him, but He’ll always be on time.