What Next?

What next? I’ve heard that line most of my life. Sometimes looking forward to something and sometimes not so much. Sad to say, many times I said it with anxiety. The first person I remember hearing it from was my mother. She wasn’t always the most optimistic person in my life but not the most pessimistic either. Many times I remember her saying “What Next?” while doing things around the house and many times when she was cooking. (She wasn’t a great cook but we did get fed). I will tell you about her cooked liver sometime.

I would even venture to say, many, if not all of us, have used those two four letter words in a sad way.  Most of those times, it wasn’t really earth shattering. It probably evokes a time in our lives when it was more of a diversion if anything. Those times when nothing seemed to be going right or we had to do something one more time to get it right and move forward.

In the southern USA right now, they are saying it about the ninth flooding from tropical storms, even as the next storm is on its way. The same is being said about the wild fires devastating so much of the western US just as another fire explodes on the horizon.

We are all looking at our next horizon, hoping and praying we can get over one problem before the next fire, flood, famine appears eminent. What about the pandemic? It’s been with us for seven months and no relief in sight as the experts say there may be not one but many new waves in our future. What next? Do as you are told. And, just like every other time, we will get through it. Case in point, Spanish Flu.

What next? is doing what we are told and then drawing closer to God. Yes, God. He told us many things about the trials of life. But we forgot to listen to Him. He said He would be with us, we just have to hold His hand as a young child holds tightly to their parents hand. He warned us about things coming, things we create and some that don’t. But we didn’t listen. I remember tossing my kids in the air and they trusted me to catch them. They laughed and I caught them. So does He. We will get through all of this.

Here is what I know. God cares about each one of us. But what He cares most about is not found in the ‘what next?’ but in what’s inside our hearts. After the thousands of ‘what next? we will realize this world is not our home. This journey we are on has us saying ‘what next?’. One day we may say it for the last time just before we walk into His presence and standing there He will says to us, “come into your rest”.

“Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways submit to Him, and He will make your paths straight.”

Something to think about

Rob