The Kentucky Derby Lesson I Needed About Timing

Sometimes the race is still unfolding while we convince ourselves we’ve already lost.

Sometimes the race is still unfolding while we convince ourselves we’ve already lost.

What if being behind isn’t the same thing as being forgotten?

I couldn’t stop thinking about how many people feel like they’re running behind in life… including me.

Watching the Kentucky Derby reminded me of this.

The jockey, José Ortiz, had raced in the Kentucky Derby 10 times before this year. Many times, he came in last, or second to last. But thank God he didn’t stop at 10.

During this race, he was literally in the back for majority of the race and somehow made up an incredible amount of time. According to the announcers, that kind of comeback “doesn’t usually happen.”

But it did!

Earlier that week, I saw a visual of a runner being pulled backward by an invisible slingshot while everyone else sprinted ahead.

And that image got me to thinking…

How many of us are trying, praying, working, healing…

and somehow still feeling behind?

But the thing about a slingshot is this:

The pullback is not proof you’re losing.

Sometimes the tension is preparing momentum.

The miracle wasn’t just the win.

It was that he kept entering the race.

Later, I came across a video talking about retroactive blessings — the idea that God has not forgotten the tears, prayers, disappointments, and delayed hopes we thought were buried years ago.

“I will repay you for the years the locusts have eaten, the great locust and the young locust, the other locusts and the locust swarm - my great army that I sent among you." Joel 2:25 NIV

Maybe restoration doesn’t always arrive loudly.

Sometimes it arrives after years of wondering if Heaven remembered your tears.

Maybe that’s why so many people quietly wrestle with the thought:

God must have skipped me.

Skipped my prayer.
Skipped my season.
Skipped the thing I’ve been believing for.

Especially after years of watching other people move forward while you feel stuck in the same place — praying, trying, showing up… and still wondering when it will finally be your turn.

But the Derby story interrupted that narrative for me.

Golden Tempo (the horse) wasn’t first out the gate.

He wasn’t leading early.

He wasn’t even expected to win.

And yet, the race was still unfolding.

Sometimes we assume the first visible movement determines the outcome. But life has a way of reminding us that timing and endurance matter too.

What also stood out to me was that José Ortiz’s brother, Irad Ortiz Jr., was racing in the Derby too, and he came in second place.

Not only did one brother win, but the other placed right behind him.

It reminded me that sometimes our breakthrough creates room for the people connected to us too.

Sometimes your blessing becomes a ripple effect.

Sometimes your obedience, endurance, or answered prayer opens doors for your family, your children, your friends, or the people walking beside you.

That thought made me think about the woman in 2 Kings 8.

After years away from her home during famine, she returned to appeal to the king for her land. And at the exact moment she arrived, the king was already hearing her story being told.

Not only was her land restored, but all the income she had lost during those years was restored too.

“Give back everything that belonged to her, including all the income from her land from the day she left the country until now.”
— 2 Kings 8:6 NIV

That part stayed with me.

Because maybe restoration isn’t always partial.

Maybe God still knows how to restore time, opportunity, peace, joy, and things we thought were permanently lost.

So no — the “maybes” in this article are intentional.

Because the truth is:

God has not forgotten you.

You have not been skipped.

And being behind does not automatically mean you are losing.

Sometimes life convinces us that if we are not first out of the gate, we’ve already failed.

But timing, endurance, and faithfulness still matter.

This was my reminder that you do not have to be first out of the gate to still have purpose, timing, and promise attached to your life.

Can you keep showing up when the outcome hasn’t changed yet?

Maybe that’s the real question faith asks us sometimes.

Not whether we can believe after the victory…

but whether we can keep showing up before it happens.

Before the doors open.

Before the timing makes sense.

Before anyone expects us to win.