When You Don’t Know What’s Next

Jan 13, 2023

The Lord had said to Abram, “Go from your country, your people, and your father’s household to the land I will show you. “I will make you into a great nation, and I will bless you; I will make your name great, and you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and whoever curses you I will curse; and all peoples on earth will be blessed through you.”

- Genesis 12:1-3

Over the Christmas break, my immediate family and I went home to visit our extended family in Minnesota.

The week was filled with catching up and chatting about all we were looking forward to in 2023. Toward the end of our trip, I asked my younger brother, Charlie, how his week had been. “It’s been good,” he sighed, “But I don’t think I can handle one more person asking me what I’m doing after graduation.”

A 17-year-old graduating senior, Charlie is faced with the constant nagging question both internally and externally that all seniors face: “What’s next?”

Of course, all of the curious family are asking merely out of love and excitement for him, but working with high schoolers… I know how tiring this season can get. The winter of senior year is tough: The applications have been turned in but the acceptances haven’t come back yet, and everyone wants to know where you’re headed.

I can remember that tension when I was a senior, but unfortunately for Charlie, it doesn’t end in high school. People ask you what’s next when you graduate college, when you’re getting married, when the kids are born, when you’re feeling stuck in your job - it seems like during the moments where we’re most unsure come the questions we don’t want to answer. “What’s next? What’s your plan? Where do you see yourself in 10 years?”

Surely, it’s good to have a plan, but oftentimes, in our individualistic, western, “American Dream” culture, there’s an intense expectation that we’d all have it figured out. That our business plan, or personal goals, or New Year’s Resolutions, would be a roadmap to lifelong success.

But you know and I know that’s not how life works.

We don’t get into the college we wanted. The job doesn’t pan out. The business venture ends up being the opposite of lucrative. The marriage is failing. Too often the plan isn’t a clear map, it’s more of a rollercoaster.

When the map goes wrong it can leave us questioning: “Does God even have a plan for me? Has He called me to anything?”

I’m reading a book by Susan Maros called, Calling in Context. In one portion of the book, she talks about how our competitive culture can get “calling” SO wrong. She brings up Genesis 12 when God called Abraham to go from his country to be made into a great nation.

Maros writes,

“If Abraham’s story reflected a US-American perspective on calling, Abraham would have immediately settled down, built a home and a city. God’s word that this was the land God had given would be expected to result in immediate occupation. Abraham’s wandering and waiting (are) contrary to our popular notions of what calling looks like… It took decades of life for Abraham to understand more of God’s call and promise… We tend to despair of God’s work in our lives if we don’t see fulfillment in months or years, let alone decades. Furthermore, much of God’s promise to Abraham was not lived out in Abraham’s lifetime… We expect calling and concrete results (in our own lives), not calling and wandering and partial fulfillment.”

Far too often, we expect God’s work in our lives to play out according to our hopes and timing.

But throughout scripture, we see God at work in the lives of His people over the course of generations. Abraham is called by God and then faces decades of waiting and wandering. Noah is told to build an ark and has to trust for years that a flood will come. The coming of Christ is foretold centuries before Jesus actually arrives.

God’s plan and calling don’t look like a 21st-century success story that would garner accolades in American culture.

Truly understanding God’s calling is surrendering to His timing, trusting the seasons of waiting and wandering, and believing that he will grow you and use you for His glory.

It’s okay to have goals and embark on exciting ventures. Of course, Abraham had to actually GO, Noah had to actually BUILD - but friend, don’t let the fear creep in if you don’t find your home right away or if the flood takes a while to come. God works in the waiting. In the moments where we get asked the hard questions, “What’s next? Where are you headed?”, remind yourself that the wandering is where God works the most.