I Just Want What Is Next

For those of you who don’t know I have taken Bieber Fever to another level and most recently went to Australia to see one of his shows. Granted, it was my spring break and I did get to spend the whole week there. That justifies is right? All that to say, it has been almost two weeks since I have been back home and the transition was something I never even imagined.

I wanted to stay. I wanted to go back.

I think the thrill of being in a new place and getting out of my five day a week routine of school, babysit, homework, gym, repeat, was such a fresh breath of air that when I came home I felt suffocated.

There are a couple months of school left and then I leave to work at Camp Winshape for the Summer. I constantly find myself counting down the seconds until that day comes. I want to be anywhere except where I am.

Since I have been home I have come across so many people who are in the same place. There is a common theme of waiting for the page to turn throughout the conversations I have had with people. It is something we all struggle with. We are in the middle of the storm and we want the dry place. We are in the middle of the desert and we want the rain. We always want what we don’t have and when we do have it we don’t appreciate it.

For me, I have no sense of purpose right now (cue Justin Bieber song). It feels like there is no outpour. It feels like there is no impact being made on this world. It feels like I am wasting time. It feels like I am too comfortable and just want to dive head first out what I know into the unknown. It feels like am taking baby steps of faith when I want to be leaping. It feels like it is all just too easy because my days consist of school and work.

I have been digging as deep as I can into scripture to encourage some of my friends in this similar place but also to encourage myself.

I have been in Deuteronomy recently where Moses is telling the Israelites to go in and occupy the land the Lord has promised them. This land is more commonly known as the “Promise Land.” The Israelites had been released from the hand of Pharaoh in Egypt, wandering in the wilderness, and now were about to arrive at the place God promised them.

But what Moses keeps warning the Israelites of is to remember how the Lord brought them through the wilderness.

He tells them….

[Deuteronomy 8:10-16]

 ¹⁰ When you have eaten and are satisfied, praise the Lord your God for the good land he has given you. ¹¹ Be careful that you do not forget the Lord your God, failing to observe his commands, his laws and his decrees that I am giving you this day. ¹² Otherwise, when you eat and are satisfied, when you build fine houses and settle down, ¹³ and when your herds and flocks grow large and your silver and gold increase and all you have is multiplied, ¹⁴ then your heart will become proud and you will forget the Lord your God, who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery. ¹⁵ He led you through the vast and dreadful wilderness, that thirsty and waterless land, with its venomous snakes and scorpions. He brought you water out of hard rock. ¹⁶ He gave you manna to eat in the wilderness, something your ancestors had never known, to humble and test you so that in the end it might go well with you.

So many of us have our eyes set on that next season of life or the next big thing coming. So many of us have our own “promise land” in mind and are trying everything we can to get there. However, Moses is saying that even when you get where you are trying to get to and are fully satisfied with all that comes with it do not forget how the Lord brought you through. He is warning them to not become complacent with prosperity.

Moses was telling the Israelites and us that the climax of the story wasn’t reaching this new place (or the new season). The miracle wasn’t entering into a land where they would have what they needed. The main part of the story was the steps between point A (Egypt) and point B (the Promise Land). The story is now. The journey you are on right now is going be the very thing that God wants you to never forget. Yes, the Promise Land is always ahead but we have to soak up the steps we are taking now, no matter how big or small, because they are going to be a story to tell. People are going to relate more to your story in the wilderness than the story of how you arrived.

The Israelites didn’t get it all right though. There was a time when the Promise Land was right in front of them, the Lord gave them permission to enter in, and they did not go. Instead, they marched straight back into the wilderness. [Deuteronomy 1:43 and Deuteronomy 2:1]

The wilderness is a safe place but when God tells you it is time to come out of the wilderness and you refuse, then it becomes harmful not helpful.

Maybe you aren’t the person trying as hard as you can to reach whatever is next. Maybe you are the person that has already reached it but have just been too afraid to go in. Too many of us are staying when it’s time to go and too many of us are trying to go when it’s time to stay.

These are my three encouragements to any of you who find yourself in either place:

1. If you are in the wilderness, waiting for what’s next, do not be so focused on what He is going to do and instead remember all that He has already done. Direct your eyes to the cross. When we truly see the cross and understand the price He paid we stop asking and start thanking.
2. When you turn the page, go into the new season, enter into your “Promise Land” be ready. Use the time you have in the wilderness to be a dreamer. Do not get there and turn around and go back just because you were not ready. Know what you want and be bold enough to ask for it. It is like getting to a restaurant and then not ordering. This has been a big one for me recently. I have been wishing for this season to be over and to go into the next one but when I stopped and asked myself what I wanted to happen in the next season I was blank. I have been wasting this time the Lord has given me to dream and complaining about not liking where I am.
3.  BE STILL. Stop trying to be in control of your own stop and go and let God be the stop light that tells you when it is time to go and when it is time to stay. We exhaust ourselves looking around in frustration trying to figure it all out and we take our gaze off the stop light that He will give us if only we are willing to set our eyes on it.

I have wasted so much time waiting on the arrival of Summer that I have missed the fact that my light wasn’t green right now. It was red.

Right now He just wants me to stay. To be in the wilderness and to prepare me for what is to come. I believed the lie that I was too comfortable when reality is I am too uncomfortable. It is hard for me to just be and to just sit a while with Him. It is hard for me to roam this wilderness of mine with no idea where He is leading me. But I will never have a story to tell if I tune out now. There is a lot of dirt in this wilderness of mine. A lot of hard days, doubts, and confusion. God made man from dirt. He is a creative God. He will use the dirt.

You hear it all the time: Be where you are. I have never seen that to be more true than I have now.

The story is the steps in between.

The next season always comes. New life, new adventures, new opportunities, they always come. Spring always come, bursting with color, but you never get to Spring unless you go through Winter.

You never get to the Promise Land without going through the wilderness.

Waiting? Lean in. Be a dreamer.

Arrived? Go in. Be a doer. Remember how He got you to where you are.