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

by Emily P. Freeman

The goal is not to finish an activity. The goal is always union with God.

Ease my fatigue with your presence and my hesitation with your peace.

And when you have a big decision to make, you need all the love and support you can possibly get. The only place I know to find that for sure is in the presence of Jesus.

wonder, do we all have trouble listening to what’s happening on our soul level, that part of us we can’t see

and our soul is often lost beneath the piles of our everyday life. This idea of becoming a

How am I regularly getting rid of the soul clutter I no longer need?

we have to de-own.

Becoming a soul minimalist does not mean that you should hold on to nothing but rather that nothing should have a hold on you.

the best way to uncover a bit of white space in my own soul is to be still.

Stillness is to my soul as decluttering

Headlines, I can read you all at once later. I do not need to know the moment news breaks. Phone, you are not allowed to boss me. I have good work to do. I have a life to live. I have decisions to make.

Notifications are interrupting our day, our concentration, our focus, and our ability to be present. So let’s just ignore them on purpose.

Anything to help push back the darting eyes, the constant scrolling, and the brain space we willingly

We’re letting everyone else’s agenda live for free in the sacred space of our creative mind, and it’s time for an eviction. This space is necessary for ideas to form, for questions to rise up, for hope to weave her way into our vision for the future, and for the dots of decision to begin to connect in the quiet places of our mind and heart. Good decisions require creativity, and

We confess we live distracted lives, and our insides often shake with constant activity. We have grown accustomed to ignoring our low-grade anxiety, thinking that it’s just a normal part of an active life. This might be typical, and it might be common. But let it not be normal. Instead of trying to figure out how to calm the chaos and hustle around us, we rejoice with confidence that we don’t have to figure our way back to

the light and easy way of Jesus, because you have already made your way to us. We have your Spirit living within us, which means there’s hope for us after all. You invite us into each moment to simply do the next right thing in love.

When we’re in the midst of difficult times, not everyone responds as the Writebols did, at least not at first.

But we are all on our own journey of living in to those truths. We would do well to create space for others to walk a little ways into that truth and begin to name their own narratives in time.

that within each narrative there are almost always shadows of gray along the way.

Maybe you need to spend a little time letting the darkness do what darkness does—nourish, strengthen, and hold. The darkness can invite us into a mystery, a place where we don’t know the answer. We know that seeds need to bury

the jagged edges of your soul. If you take time to name something that has remained unnamed within you—a fear, a loneliness, a heartbreak, a dream, or a regret—resist the urge to grab and go. Instead, give that name some space to rise up and take shape. Then get curious about it. Hold it in the presence of Jesus. Ask him for direction and wisdom. Let yourself be a gatherer of information when it comes to what’s happening beneath the surface. Name it, but don’t force a definition.

what we believe about God informs every aspect of our lives, including our decisions.

Because there is almost always a gap between what we say we believe and what we actually believe. None of us are exempt.

Do we believe God is like a puppeteer, a kind old grandfather, an abusive parent, an insecure friend, a greedy king, a manipulative mother, or a golden retriever?

He will not shame you into better behavior. He will not trick you.

He will not tease you. He will not laugh at you. He will not terrorize you. He does not pull rugs out from under you. He does not drop the other shoe. He does not pull fast ones. He will not roll his eyes, throw up his hands, or turn his back on you.

God is your Shepherd; he provides what you need. He invites you to lie down in green pastures. He leads you beside quiet waters. He restores your soul. He leads you in paths of righteousness for the sake of his own name. Even when you walk through the valley of the shadow of death, you don’t have to be afraid. He will provide comfort. He prepares a table for you and takes care of you, even when your enemies surround you. He anoints your head w...

Instead of those black-and-white answers we tend to love so much, what if we began to look for arrows instead?

If we don’t have the capacity to name them with our words, they will speak through our bodies.

Logic and limits often get in the way of longing. And longing is key to our growth.

But provision doesn’t only mean money, and I know in fact you may be able to testify to that. You know that even with enough money you

provision also looks like support, like communication, like turning toward the people you love rather than away from them. Provision looks like staying in the room together when it would be easier to walk out.

perhaps your next right thing is to take a break from your frantic search for answers and look around for the arrows instead.

Don’t be afraid to be a beginner. Be relentlessly kind to yourself. What if this is your next right thing?

Fear works both ways, keeping you from doing things you might want to do and convincing you that you have to do things you don’t want to do.

We can’t prevent storms from coming, but we can decide not to invent our own.

You may continue to show up at a job not because you necessarily want to be there but because your deepest desire is to provide for your family, and that is truly what you want. At the most basic level, this is still an issue of desire. You want to provide, and so you choose to show up even when it’s hard. But here is perhaps the most important thing to remember as you begin to get honest

Desire is only toxic when we demand our desires be satisfied on our terms and in our timing. Knowing what we want and getting what we want are not necessarily the same thing.

Let’s agree that knowing what we want is not the same as getting what we want, and certainly not the same as demanding what we want.

what we normally do is race into the next season without considering the one we just moved through. That’s understandable, but it could also be costing us something, and we may not

What was life-draining? What was life-giving?

life-giving for me may be life-draining for you. Not only that, what is life-giving for you today may feel draining this time next year.

For example, maybe it drains you to think of having people over to your house. Maybe you are an introvert and quite honestly would rather be alone. But you also value connection with people. As a result, having people over might show up on both lists for you. In fact, when you look back

What is life-giving? Your current life will give you hints; it always does. Your body gives you hints. Your mood gives you hints. Your family gives you hints. I never have to think twice or wonder. I always know as soon as I name them. You will too.

Here’s the truth: you can only make decisions based on what you know at the time. We live in an outcomes-based culture, where the correctness of our choice seems based on the success

We make our list alongside Jesus and bring these things to him, asking him in every situation what he wants us to do. And then we trust that our desire can be trusted because he isn’t just with us; he lives within us and he’ll let us know what we need to know. We can get honest about how certain things bring us life and how other things don’t. And then we listen.

We admit we’d like to know the plan before we agree to it, but we’re beginning to understand that’s not really how you roll. As we take a little time to look back at our lives, give us the courage to admit what was hard and embrace what we love. Remind us to move toward life, again and again. We ask today for a hopeful vision of the future even while we sit with question marks. Thank you for being with us and within us and for never leaving us alone.

When you focus on what’s missing, it’s hard to see what’s there.

Today, perhaps your next right thing is to slow down long enough to see what’s taking up space in your life, to stop looking around and to settle in and listen. If that feels hard, it could be that you’re spinning around, looking for the next hundred things rather than the next one thing.

Just because you feel unsettled doesn’t mean you’re not a content person. It