Nothing Is Wasted

It’s All In The Process.

Whew! September. The amount of tears. The amount of unknown. The amount of times I have had to simply trust God and keep moving. But you know what? It has strengthened my faith and my belief. So much has transpired in such a short amount of time, and as I sit here and think about all of it, I keep coming back to the same thing: nothing is wasted. I mean NOTHING.

I came out of a 21-day fast in August. No social media. No food. I spent that time with God, reading His Word, listening and allowing Him to deal with me. Then September came, and it was time to get moving again. Back in the LAB, working on the return of Orange, working on Pineapple, and getting ready for another year of facilitating through Deeper Business Network (DBN), my church’s business cohort.

Around 5:00 in the morning on the very day our first DBN class was starting, my iPhone 16 stopped working on the cellular network. I’m like, Really? Today? 😂 But we kept moving. After class, I went to AT&T. They worked on the phone for about an hour trying to figure out what was going on, and eventually it was determined that I had a hardware issue.

Then came the sales pitch. New phones. New options. Something shiny and new. Nope. I remembered I had AppleCare. Thank God for AppleCare because the repair was going to cost me ZERO dollars! Now THAT part I liked. 😂 But then I found out the part was going to take approximately 3–5 business days. Three to five business days? I don’t have that kind of downtime! Especially after coming off a 21-day fast in August. I had things to do. Ja’ja Chews® is moving. Production is moving. DBN is starting. Life is On-Full!

Somewhere in all of this, Holy Spirit reminded me of my iPhone 13. Y’all, I had an iPhone 13 sitting right in my possession! I had kept it as a backup phone to use for my camera and videos, and there wasn’t any cellular service connected to it. So I took it to AT&T and asked them to move my service from my iPhone 16 over to my iPhone 13.

While the representative was helping me, he started telling me how well constructed the iPhone 13 was. I was like, WOW! I have a treasure in my possession! 😂 Here I was thinking about what I was going to do while my other phone was being repaired, and what I needed was already sitting there. I didn’t need a new phone. I didn’t need to spend hundreds of dollars. I needed to use what I already had. Thank You, Holy Spirit.

That stayed with me. How many times are we looking for something new when God is saying, Look at what is already in your possession? Whew. Because that wasn’t the only place He was showing me this.

Back in the LAB

September has definitely been a month of perfecting. I knew I was going back into production to replenish our Orange Chew, and then here comes Pineapple. Now, Pineapple isn’t exactly new to me. I knew about Pineapple back in 2023, but it wasn’t time. Apparently, now it is.

But LISTEN! Orange took me through a process, and Pineapple has taken me through a process. There were batches that tasted delicious. The quality was there. But the appearance? No ma’am. 😂 I call them my ugly Chews. I’m not putting something on a retail shelf just because I can. When you purchase Ja’ja Chews®, I want to be satisfied with what I’m putting in your hands.

So I tried again. I cried. I learned. I adjusted. And I tried AGAIN. Now I am looking at this Orange Chew, and I am so satisfied with the quality of what will soon be released. And Pineapple is getting there too.

But here is what really got me. Those not-so-perfect Orange and Pineapple Chews that weren’t going into retail packaging are samples now! Come on God! 😂 I thought I had Chews that I couldn’t sell. God showed me I had samples I could give away. Nothing wasted! They can still introduce someone to Ja’ja Chews®. They can still be tasted. They can still serve a purpose. They just weren’t assigned to the retail shelf.

Whew! That will preach all by itself. Sometimes something isn’t bad because it didn’t fulfill the purpose you originally had for it. Maybe it has another assignment.

This Time, God Sent Help

Right in the middle of all of this, I started another year as a facilitator with Deeper Business Network (DBN), my church’s business cohort. Each group of facilitators is given a cohort to steward, and the cohort I get to steward this year is called Vision Builders. When I saw that name, I immediately thought about Nehemiah building the wall. Everybody had their portion. Everybody had something to do.

But this year there is something different for me. For the last two years, I facilitated by myself. This year, God gave me a helper. And not just anybody. My co-facilitator is one of the very graduates from the cohort I stewarded last year. Y’all! 😭 Look at God. Someone I poured into last season is standing beside me helping me pour into somebody else this season. I couldn’t have planned that. And God knew I needed it.

My life isn’t getting less full; it’s getting fuller. Ja’ja Chews® is growing. I’m in production. I’m serving again through DBN. And on the home front, I’m about to become a grandmother for the THIRD time next month! Another grandbaby! 😭❤️ God knew. He knew what this season was going to require from me. After two years of facilitating alone, this time He sent help. Thank You, Jesus.

There are seasons when God gives you the grace to carry something one way, and then there are seasons when He sends somebody to help you carry it. Both are blessings.

Nothing Is Wasted

That’s what September has been teaching me. The iPhone 13 sitting around with no cellular service wasn’t wasted. The Orange Chews that weren’t pretty enough for retail weren’t wasted. The Pineapple attempts that weren’t quite there yet weren’t wasted. The two years I facilitated alone weren’t wasted. The time I poured into the people in my previous cohort definitely wasn’t wasted. And the tears? Not wasted.

Even the unknown isn’t wasted, because the unknown is teaching me to trust God in a way that knowing everything never could. I don’t know everything that’s ahead for Ja’ja Chews®. I don’t know everything that’s going to happen with Pineapple. I don’t know everything this year will bring with Vision Builders. And with another grandbaby coming, I definitely don’t know what every day is going to look like. 😂 But I’m okay with that, because I know Who does.

When I can’t see what’s ahead, I can look back and see how many times He already made provision before I even knew I needed it. Sometimes the provision is a person. Sometimes it’s an old phone. Sometimes it’s an imperfect Chew. Sometimes it’s another attempt. And sometimes it’s simply the strength to get up and do it again.

So yes, September has brought tears. But these tears are different, because now I can see that even the tears have watered something. Whew. Nothing wasted. NOTHING.

I’m going to keep building. I’m going to keep stewarding. I’m going to keep listening. I’m going to keep trying. And I’m going to keep trusting God with what I don’t know. Because one thing I KNOW: It’s All In The Process.

Patricia A. Fox

Founder & CEO, Ja’ja Chews®

Chew Your Way To Something Different