What’s Next
I had worked professionally with youth for the last 19 years and one thing that has spoken to me is their desire to know, “What’s Next?”. When I would take them on a trip it was the most commonly asked question. We would go to an all night event that had a hockey game, bowling, a movie, and swimming. The whole time they would ask when the next thing is and seemingly not enjoying the thing they were currently at. It got to the point where I would institute a 3 question per day limit on all teens (unless they were Biblically related questions). Of course the kids would find loop holes and find new ways to ask their questions. That always lead to interesting discussions.
I had always thought that this was a youth thing until I stopped and looked at my life. Was I living from event to event and ignoring the event I was currently at, like I perceived my teens to be doing. Yes, I was. They were just honest about it. It got me to thinking, “How much of my life have I missed by waiting for the next thing to come along?”
Where did this thinking come from?
Are we taught at a young age to be looking for the next thing?
Is it something programmed into our DNA?
Where do we get this “what’s next” mentality?
I honestly don’t know where this line of thinking comes from. I do know that I can change it.
This makes me think of the passage found in Matthew 6:25-34:
25 “Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothes?
26 Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they?
27 Can any one of you by worrying add a single hour to your life?
28 “And why do you worry about clothes? See how the flowers of the field grow. They do not labor or spin.
29 Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these.
30 If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, will he not much more clothe you—you of little faith?
31 So do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’
32 For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them.
33 But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.
34 Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.
This means God has us. It may be difficult but that doesn’t change the fact that we are in God’s care and He won’t let go.
I am challenging myself to stop looking and waiting for the next thing and to begin looking at what is right here in front of me that I can enjoy until the next thing comes a long. It is a small difference but one that I believe will be rewarding. It will be challenging at times but that is why it is called a challenge.
What’s now not what’s next.