The Next Right Thing
~Shaina Weisgerber, Worship Pastor
Psalm 139:7-10 & 23-24 “Where can I go to escape your Spirit? Where can I flee from your presence? If I go up to the heaven, you are there; if I make my bed in Sheol, you are there. If I live at the eastern horizon or settle at the western limits, even there your hand will lead me; your right hand will hold on to me. Search me, God, and know my heart; test me and know my concerns. See if there is any offensive way in me; lead me in the everlasting way.”
Raise your hand if you’ve seen Frozen 2? If you’re like us, you’ve now seen it no less than 327 times since it came out on DVD. If I could just confess something, I LOVE IT SO MUCH and I do not even mind watching it so many times. There is a running theme throughout and I am about to disclose details, so if you live under a rock and haven’t seen it yet, well, so sorry. Come over and watch it with us sometime perhaps?
Anna has just lost her sister, Elsa (the queen) and her best friend Olaf (the goofy talking snowman) and she finds herself in a dark cave, alone, with very little guidance on what to do next. How will she get out of the cave, how will she help save her kingdom from potential ruin and how will she ever be ok again after losing her only family? She is curled up, on the floor of this cave, and she sings these words.
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I've seen dark before, but not like this
This is cold, this is empty, this is numb
The life I knew is over, the lights are out
Hello, darkness, I'm ready to succumb
I follow you around, I always have
But you've gone to a place I cannot find
This grief has a gravity, it pulls me down
But a tiny voice whispers in my mind
You are lost, hope is gone
But you must go on
And do the next right thingCan there be a day beyond this night?
I don't know anymore what is true
I can't find my direction, I'm all alone
The only star that guided me was you
How to rise from the floor?
But it's not you I'm rising for
Just do the next right thing |
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Take a step, step again
It is all that I can to do
The next right thing
I won't look too far ahead
It's too much for me to take
But break it down to this next breath, this next step
This next choice is one that I can make
So I'll walk through this night
Stumbling blindly toward the light
And do the next right thing
And, with it done, what comes then?
When it's clear that everything will never be the same again
Then I'll make the choice to hear that voice
And do the next right thing |
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I’m going to guess that you can relate, in some capacity to this small, but powerful song. Have you ever found yourself in the darkest night of the soul? Have you been in the waiting room, the hospital room, the courtroom, the prison cell, the floor of your closet even, just begging God to hear you, asking him, “where are you, God?” These dark places, so lonely and cold are the places where God is with us all the more. The grief, the pain, the unknown, the loss and the open wounds of hurt or betrayal, they are not too much for him. He has not fled. He is with you.
Prayer can be something we avoid when we’re in the trenches of life. Perhaps we are mad at God, certainly confused or even deeply offended by His actions or what we see as his passivity. Prayer is our “next right thing.” It is always our next right thing. When we are in the darkest of days and when we are rejoicing on the mountain tops of life, prayer is our next right thing.
I know how hard it is to trust him in the darkness. I know how the world wants us to believe that He has given us over to the darkness, but we know that is not the truth. We know He is light and in Him there is NO darkness. (1 John) When we call upon his name, he leads us in the way everlasting. (Psalm 139) We are never alone. (Joshua 1) We are never too far gone.
(Ephesians 2) We are never too far from his rescue, his comfort or his hand. Call out to him, as your next right thing, then call again and again. You will find that he will guide you, each step at a time, (Psalm 119) through the darkness and into the light, season to season, with each up and down of life. He is faithful and reliable. |
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