What's Next
Caroline Clark // UGA Student & Communications Intern
A SHIFT IN SEASONS
I have all of the sudden found myself in an extremely interesting season of life. One characterized by graduation, wedding planning, major transitions, graduate school applications, and anticipating what’s next - despite the fact that I have very little clue what that is exactly. One of my favorite parts of being a graduating senior is the iconic question asked at any given moment – “What are you doing after May?”
Alright fine, that’s complete sarcasm. This question sends me down a mental spiral way too easily. The convicting part of this is that so often, I’m the one asking that question. I’m not just talking about questioning my peers in a similar life stage, I’m thinking about all the times I’ve cried out to God asking these kinds of questions.
“What now?”
“What’s next”
“Where do I go from here?”
Let’s zoom out and sit in that for a second. I’m not sure if you struggle with this too, but why does contemplating what’s next consistently elicit anxiety and doubt in our minds? As believers, we have nothing if we don’t have hope in Jesus for what’s to come.
AN ATTACK ON OUR PEACE
A couple of days before my 17th birthday, I was diagnosed with a brain tumor. Months of painful symptoms all of the sudden had a name, and the enemy tried his hardest to capitalize in that season of weakness. As a junior in high school at the time, I never imagined circumstances like missing prom to have brain surgery or missing months of school because I was not physically strong enough to walk the halls and sit in class. Although that was almost 5 years ago, this season held many moments of pain, frustration, anxiety, and at times, hopelessness. The peace I had known in Jesus was being attacked. Where was I supposed to go from there?
It was not until a mentor walked with me through Romans 5 that I stopped seeing the circumstances as my enemy, but rather a path to know Christ better and make Him known to those around me. Romans 5: 3-5 says “Not only that, but we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not put us to shame because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.”
This changed everything for me because not only does God give purpose to our pain, but He gives us a step by step model to move through hardship and reclaim our hope. Rather than bulldozing through our emotions to get to what’s next, trials and hardships are an invitation to mimic Christ’s character through endurance and to know Him and the hope he offers better because of it. That should give us confidence to face the next moment!
While this part of my story may be an extreme example, it’s so important to apply this to normative moments and everyday emotions you may feel!
Graduating.
Moments of anxiety.
Disappointment in something / someone.
Discouragement.
Feeling stuck in depression.
Restoring a broken relationship.
And the list goes on….
I know you may be thinking, “Oh great! another blog post telling me to ignore my emotions and trust Jesus instead!” à Wrong! If anything, I want to invite you to feel what you’re feeling and process those emotions with the Lord rather than apart from Him. Processing my emotions is not a strength of mine, but throughout the past few years, I’ve learned how necessary it is in order to move forward without any bitterness or underlying doubt. The gospel was not given to us for our moments of complete understanding. Why would we need it if we could depend on what we know apart from Jesus? God sent His son, Jesus, to live a sinless life on this Earth and die on the cross before defeating death and raising to life again. He did that because we are broken people in bondage to our sin and sentenced to death without a savior. When Jesus rose from death, He offered us freedom from sin and death well as an invitation for us to spend eternity with Him in Heaven. (John 3:16-17; Romans 3:23-25; Romans 5:8; 1 Timothy 1:15; 1 Peter 2:24-25).
When we feel stuck in a moment or can’t process an emotion, our imperfect human nature asks what comes next, but because of the gospel, God has already told us that what’s next is eternal freedom and life with Him.
JESUS IN OUR CIRCUMSTANCES
All I’m saying is that we complicate the idea of “next”. So often we want to clearly see the moment we’re in. Then we want an extensive outline of what the future will hold, and when we don’t get that, our faith wavers. I’m preaching straight back to myself, because I’ve been there. And my response to that is look at Luke 8 and notice we’re in good company.
Luke 8: 22-25
22 One day he got into a boat with his disciples, and he said to them, “Let us go across to the other side of the lake.” So they set out, 23 and as they sailed he fell asleep. And a windstorm came down on the lake, and they were filling with water and were in danger. 24 And they went and woke him, saying, “Master, Master, we are perishing!” And he awoke and rebuked the wind and the raging waves, and they ceased, and there was a calm. 25 He said to them, “Where is your faith?” And they were afraid, and they marveled, saying to one another, “Who then is this, that he commands even winds and water, and they obey him?”
Sometimes I read this story and I want to criticize the disciples because I mean come on! They literally and physically had Jesus in the middle of their storm with them, and even still they feared their circumstances. But isn’t this us? If the Holy Spirit dwells within us (which it does) and if Jesus is present in every moment with us (which He is) then our doubt in the middle of a storm is no different than the disciple’s. Jesus emphasizes in this story that He is always present in our chaos, and He is a firm foundation to depend on no matter what our circumstances are.
CHRIST AS OUR FIRM FOUNDATION
The truth is our response to hard things really should not be that different than our response to something we define as “good”. Because of who Jesus is and who He has proven himself to be time and time again, we don’t have to be afraid of what comes next. We don’t have to feel stuck in a moment or emotion. Psalm 113:3 says “From the rising of the sun to its setting same, the name of the Lord is to be praised.”
So what’s next?
What comes after pain? We praise Him.
What comes after joy? We praise Him.
What comes after discouragement? We praise Him.
What do we do in the middle of anxiety and depression? We praise Him.
What do we do when we are trying to make a decision? We praise Him.
Where do we go from here? WE PRAISE HIM!
Friends, He is endlessly worthy of our praise. He is the firm foundation where we can place our hope no matter what. He is worth believing in, trusting in, and hoping in. May each moment we find ourselves in, both the joyful and the painful, bring us to a place of deeper praise and reverence for our King Jesus!
As you go, here are some songs that help me meditate on this:
- Firm Foundation (Cody Carnes)
- Honey In the Rock (Brooke Ligertwood and Brandon Lake)
- Gratitude (Brandon Lake)
- Peace Be Still (Lauren Daigle)
- Promises (Maverick City Music)
- It’s Always Been You (Phil Wickham)
- 1,000 Names (Phil Wickham)
- Be Still (Red Rocks Worship)
Caroline is a Human Development and Family Sciences major and biology minor at UGA, graduating in the fall! She is a communications intern and went to Boston with Watty this past summer! She is also involved in the Albers tribe on Mondays. Serving the local church and getting to know people are some of her biggest passions!
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