On Getting Out of Bed: The Burden and Gift of Living

by Alan Noble

In my experience, the only way to move forward is to dedicate yourself to doing the next thing. To do the next thing is not to deny our other responsibilities but to recognize that faithfulness is always an obligation for the present.22 Right now we have a duty to serve God by doing whatever good work He has put before us. And if we trouble ourselves with all the other things we are burdened with, the things of tomorrow or the next hour or minute, we will be overwhelmed. God asks only that we serve Him now. Choose this second who you will serve, and then serve Him by doing the next thing. Place it in the forefront of your mind so that you don’t lose sight of it: I will get out of bed. Put on my shoes. Walk downstairs. Make coffee. And so on. We have to do all these things without getting lost in perfection, in frantically trying to master our lives by choosing the perfect next thing. Very often it is only by focusing on the concrete details of life, the singular actions demanded of us, that we can keep moving. But when we do the next thing, we communicate with our bodies that the next thing is worth doing. This moment is worth living. This life and all the responsibilities it entails is worth whatever hardships we experience. We need to be reminded of this. So do our neighbors.