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

by Emily P. Freeman

It doesn’t matter what the specific decision is. Unmade decisions hold power.

Maybe you are addicted to clarity and certitude, wanting to be absolutely sure of all the details before moving forward.

Maybe you have an aversion to making decisions so you either delegate them, avoid them, or make them too quickly just to get them settled.

So often, right after Jesus performed a miracle, he gave a simple next thing to do.

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.

Regardless of your own degree of personal choice, you have a God who walks and talks with you, who moves in and through you,

who sings over you.

I understand it, then I can control it.

Unmade decisions have the power to either close us up in fear or open us up to love.

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.

Here is an issue that has me tied up in knots. Will you begin to untangle me?

I’m never more aware of my need for God, for hope, and for direction than when I have to make a choice.

When the answers aren’t clear, what we want more than anything is peace, clarity, and a nudge in the right direction.

When we take the time to follow those clues, we might find out we are holding on to some things we no longer need and gripping some things we might need to let go.

before you can move forward, it’s essential to practice doing the next small thing in front of you,

thing we often think is The Thing is often not the thing but is, in fact, only a thing.

What I’m finding to be most helpful more than any list, question, or sage advice is simply to get quiet in a room with Jesus on the regular, not for the sake of an answer but for the sake of love. I

The world is run by worn-out people, and our soul is often lost beneath the piles of our everyday life.

it’s not enough to just declutter; 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. When

Anything to help push back the darting eyes, the constant scrolling, and the brain space we willingly sacrifice on the tiny, shiny altar of our phone screens. We’re letting everyone else’s

follows this rule: an hour a day, a day a week, and a week a year without technology.4 As you embrace your own

clearing clutter and creating space for silence, letting your soul know it’s safe to come out, and making room to listen.

And there’s nothing fear likes more than non-specificity.

It’s not a narrative of trauma. It’s a narrative of joy. When

If you feel stuck in a hopeless place today, I don’t want to rush you to joy. Maybe you need to spend a little time letting the darkness do what darkness does—nourish, strengthen, and hold.

don’t confuse the moment for the whole story.

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.

want our circumstances to change, to start again, to be brand-new. But when they change, we often don’t give ourselves permission to be new within them.

we want to rush ahead to mastery.

We think we ought to know how to navigate the newness, especially if it’s something we wanted, something we prayed for, ...

you’re excited about the future. But there’s a lot you don’t yet know, and there isn’t a handbook to teach you.

You have not been here before, with this particular set of circumstances, with these particular people, at this particular time in your one life.

All beginnings, no matter what they are, hold elements of both joy and heartbreak. When we enter a new beginning, we have generally also experienced some kind of ending that comes with layered emotions and experiences of grief, transition, and letting go.

Be relentlessly kind to...

Admitting those areas in your life where you are a beginner is an important part of your decision-making process, because otherwise you may find yourself making decisions in order to avoid looking dumb or feeling foolish, or to save face.

Whatever your next actual step is, the first one is simply to accept your role as a beginner.

You are in Christ and your smallness is not a liability. Your smallness is a gift.

Embrace this unique time of being a beginner.

So let this new role teach you what it has to teach you.

SAY “I DON’T KNOW (YET)”

you’ve never had a teenager before.

Welcome him into these moments of being a beginner. He wants to be with you.

“But please, don’t let fear be one of them.”

Am I being led by love or pushed by fear?

You walk toward us with love in your eyes. You

You watch behind us to protect our minds from regret.

there might be a lot of good reasons to act or not to act, but don’t let fear be one of them.

Make no mistake—denying your desire is also an answer, and that will determine your next step too. If you don’t take the time to admit what you most long for, decisions will still need to be made. But instead of stepping forward in self-awareness, you’ll base your decisions on other outward things like expectations, habit, or some other kind of external pressure.