Do the Next Beautiful Thing

“Well, how about this. How about you go ahead and start the medicine. Let’s see how you do on it. Then, we can make a decision from there. Who knows? It might not agree with you and all this worry will be for nothing. We won’t know until you start. We can figure out the next step after that.” said my doctor quietly across the desk. “Thank you for letting me help you.”

Still absorbing a season of PTSD-like symptoms, anxiety, fibromyalgia, possible-MS, and chronic fatigue, her words felt overwhelming but exactly right.

I was facing a life-changing obstacle and I didn’t know what to do next.

I hate taking medicine but I knew I needed to try it, follow her direction, and finally listen to the help being offered to me.

For all of us, when new things come our way, it can be very difficult to see the path forward.

When the dreaded things happen or the unimaginable takes place, it’s so easy to forget that we can make it through one step at a time.

Things like…

Medical diagnosis

Health crisis

Transition

New season of life or ministry or parenting

Family trials

Death of a marriage

Abuse in family or work relationships

Financial burdens

These things can throw us off course and tilt our world a bit.

We know that we must keep going because everyday life moves on as though our lives are unchanged.

The dishes still pile up and bills still need paid and food needs to make it to the table. The bathroom still needs cleaned and the car still needs an oil change.

There are signs of life around us in plants, pets, children, cars driving by, and the laughs of friends or neighbors.

We’re supposed to keep going and do the next thing.

But how?

How do you do the next thing, how do you keep going when the path ahead looks unsettled, unexpected and unknown?

How do you find peace when the challenges are coming at you from every direction?

Taking the next step can be scary, foggy and paralyzing.

Hearing the advice to do the next thing can feel impossible.

There are, honestly, so many steps you could take in those moments.

For me, my mind runs through a hundred different ways to come at whatever I’m facing.

I consider one hundred different ways that this might affected my life, job, family, and home.

6 months from now, 2 years from now… scenarios swirl through my head on an hourly basis when I’m facing something big.

My brain exhausts itself by circling around and around, worrying about making the wrong choice.

{if you can’t tell, I’m a strong Enneagram 6w5}

Why do life challenges so drastically effect and confuse us?

Although I trust God to lead me and I know without a doubt that His presence is surrounding me, the way to go about moving forward in this new reality seemed terribly blurry. It is incredibly scary to do the next thing.

In remembering back to that day the doctor asked me to try medicines, I can still hear her prodding to try.

With a calm I needed to hear, her words reminded me that sometimes, sometimes we can only do the next thing.

The next beautiful thing.

Even if it doesn’t seem so beautiful.

Even if the decisions of today don’t seem to bring calm to the future.

Even if a hundred things are still unanswered.

Like taking medicine for a life-altering season of physical distress.

I’m realizing that the next thing is beautiful.

It is beautiful because God is using these things in our lives, however awful or painful or ugly, to change us. To bring us closer to Him. To mold us into His image.

He is using the next beautiful thing in ways that we can’t grasp right now or even begin to understand.

In my heart, God is growing trust. Hope. Life.

In the midst of this struggle, God is teaching me to leave tomorrow in His care.

In my own desire to work out the details, God is reminding me that my days are numbered by His loving plan.

With these sweet words whispering through my heart, I did the next beautiful thing.

Because He lives, I can face tomorrow

Because He lives, all fear is gone

Because I know He holds the future

And life is truly worth the living, just because He lives

Someone asked me recently how I was doing.

I said, “I’m doing the next thing. I’m living today. I can’t worry about too much more than that.”

Sorting the laundry pile, going to pick up groceries, making dinner, helping the girls adult, coaching, helping, and figuring out daily plans.

Do the next thing.

The next beautiful thing.

Journal. Take vitamins. Eat healthy. Get enough sleep. Go for a walk. Take breaks. Talk to someone who can help. Keep building a healthy team around me.

In the same way, whatever you face, whatever comes your way, whatever confusion seems to be dimming your view, just keep going.

Trust in new ways. Believe He is working. Hope in Him. Walk in faith. Reach deeper than ever before.

Whatever you are facing in this moment. Do the next beautiful thing.

One decision, one day, one task at a time.

“See, I am doing a new thing!
    Now it springs up; do you not perceive it?
I am making a way in the wilderness
    and streams in the wasteland.”

Isaiah 43:19

“Because of the Lord’s great love we are not consumed,
    for his compassions never fail.
They are new every morning;
    great is your faithfulness.”

Lamentations 3:22-23

“Do the next thing. Don’t sit down and think of all the things you have to do. That will kill you. It’s overwhelming. It’s daunting if you think of all the things that are involved in a task. Just pick up the next thing.” – Elisabeth Elliot

Do the next thing.

Do the next beautiful thing, friends.

Every day. Every single page of your story. Just do the next thing.