The Next Right Thing: A Simple, Soulful Practice for Making Life Decisions

by Emily P. Freeman

Rather than a life plan, a clear vision, or a five-year list of goals, the leper, the paralytic, and Jairus and his wife were given clear instructions by Jesus about what to do next—and only next.

God often gives a faint vision of things before they ever come to be. It’s not a full form, more of a shadow, not focused or clear. It doesn’t come with steps or money or sure things, but it does come with hope. And hope is what keeps you going in the fog. Instead of those black-and-white answers we tend to love so much, what if we began to look for arrows instead?

God often speaks in such a regular and familiar way that it’s almost too normal to point out. We look for fireworks or signals or confirmation from somewhere other than us, thinking his direction can’t possibly come from us. But he keeps on reminding us that he has made our heart his home, and that’s often the place from which he’ll make his voice heard.

If you arrive at a house and the hostess stands on the porch shouting criticisms, judgments, and sarcasms at you, guess what you won’t want to do? Walk through the door. You will turn your back on that house every time and vow never to return. What if we stopped standing on our own front porch and bullying ourselves? What if we decided, instead, to be a gracious hostess to ourselves at the threshold of our own soul? We don’t go home when home is unsafe. Maybe your next right thing today is to recognize all the ways you’ve become your own enemy, all the ways you’ve put No Trespassing signs on your own soul windows, all the ways you’ve become your own suspicious, furrow-browed neighbor.

If I walk into the room knowing who I am—beloved, abiding with the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit—then people are not bound to respond a certain way in order to make me feel safe. Maintaining my relational safety is not their job. If I can keep a posture of complete and absolute trust in Christ, then they are free and so am I.

I don’t have a five year plan. God’s word is a lamp unto my feet, not my football field. Jamie B. Golden, cohost of The Popcast with Knox and Jamie and The Bible Binge