What’s Next?

I have a hard time being where my feet are.

I like to know what’s next. I like to know what the next thing to do is, the next place to go, the next item to check off. I love a good plan, in case you didn’t know. A solidified plan with no surprises makes me one happy girl.

Except it’s not always in the plans for me to know what’s next.

Now that I’ve moved to Nashville, I find myself asking God: “Now what? What do you want me to do now? What’s next?” He told me to move here, after all. He made it so clear that this was where I need to be. I’m here now. So – now what? What am I supposed to do next? 

I have a short list of big questions out to God at the moment. I’m praying about what He wants me to do next. I’m also asking for the next step in my purpose. I’m here to tell stories, but what does that look like? What’s the next right thing there? What does he want me to do? WHAT’S NEXT?

Then there’s The Dream. I’m not someone who dreams or if I do, I don’t remember them, ever, but last July, I had a dream I can’t shake. It’s stuck with me, has wrapped around me like a cloak I can’t shrug off. It felt different. It feels different. I know in my bones it means something. I’ve been asking God for clarity. Discernment. Revelation. Whatever He’d like to share. So far? He’s pretty pretty dang quiet. Sometimes I get frustrated with Him. Sometimes I try to nag it out of Him. “Give me a sign if it means something.” “Give me a sign if it doesn’t mean something.” He’s given me very little. No sign either way. No big revelation or flash of clarity. Just a lot of wondering and the occasional “Can you either answer me or just take this away from me already?” outbursts. Might have had one of those just this morning… He hasn’t taken it away from me or given any sort of clarity, so I keep it on the list, knowing that He’ll let me know what He wants me to know when He wants me to know it. 

God’s like that sometimes, isn’t he? He keeps us waiting. And waiting. And waiting. He gives us just enough to keep us going, to keep us in faith, but we still – wait. We wait until He calls us forward, until he gives us the word or the guidance we’ve been waiting for. He makes us stay where our feet are until He gives us the next piece of what’s next.

My first crush was on a boy named Saul. He was one of the middle kids of a large Hispanic family that lived on a farm a few miles down the road. We rode the same school bus and we were in the same kindergarten classroom. I decided I liked him and that was that – he was going to like me too. The problem? Aside from how I was just going to white knuckle this kid into liking me? My friend Jennifer also liked him. 

Such drama in the Yancey Elementary kindergarten… 

I would make it a point to sit next to him during carpet time. Jennifer would sit on his other side. Saul, wanting no part in girls like most five year old boys, especially one that had several sisters, would scoot a few inches away from us. So I would scoot to him. Jennifer would follow. Saul would scoot some more. Then I would join him. Then Jennifer. We would scoot inch by inch until we were on the other side of the carpet and usually in trouble with the teacher to boot. I was chasing Saul and Saul was all “nope, not right now.”

It occurred to me that these big questions I’m asking God are a lot like that time in Kindergarten. God says “move to Nashville” so I move – I chase God. Now that I’m here, he’s scooted a few inches forward and is waiting for me to catch up. Except instead of just going for it like I did with Saul, I have to wait patiently for the right time to scoot forward – only for God to likely step forward a few more inches when I catch up to him. My purpose, that dream? They’re both connected to Nashville too, waiting for the right time for me to tell me to scoot forward. While I tried to white-knuckle it was Saul, I can’t with God.

I was especially frustrated with all of this lingering in place while God was scooting forward last week. Which in hindsight, is a bit silly. I had just moved across the country for the second time in eighteen months. I had been in Nashville all of two weeks. I only just had my stuff delivered and most of it was still in boxes. And here I am, annoyed that God hasn’t rolled out the red carpet to whatever is next the moment my key turned in the knob of my Nashville apartment for the first time. A girl needs time to settle in and God knows that – I need to adjust to this new place before I scoot into what’s next. God needs me to settle in before He calls me into what’s next.

But of course, God still gave me just enough. 

On Monday morning of last week, I opened my planner to the last day I had used it which was the previous Wednesday as I had worked from home Thursday and Friday and left my planner in the office. I had written down “Isaiah 30:21” and nothing more to give it context on that Wednesday page. I tend to do that – write myself a note with one or two words and have no idea what it means a few days later. Curious, I looked up the verse on my Bible app. 

“And whenever you turn to the right or to the left, your ears will hear this command behind you: This is the way. Walk in it.” 

This is the way. Walk in it.

He really can’t be more clear there, can he? 

It took me almost a week to remember why I had written that verse down. I had read it in my devotional and wanted to remember it as that devotional had struck a chord. But apparently I had to forget it first – so it could hit me when I needed it most. A small reassurance from God that while He hasn’t shared what’s next, He has confirmed that I’m where I need to be.

I don’t have a lot of the answers I’m praying for right now. They will come. Your answers will come. For now, the task is to walk the path before me, the one before you. To take the first step and then the next and trust the rest of the path will be revealed in due time. 

That when it’s time, God will beckon us to scoot forward and join Him – and that we will trust Him when he inevitably scoots forward again. 

In the meantime, be present. Be where your feet are. 

Trust that this is the way and walk in it while you wait for what’s next.