Next

This title turned out to be an inspiration. Anticipating my next installment, I typed in “next” as a place holder while I mulled over the launch. As I came back to the title later, it hit me; no one knows what is next—not even the next moment. Have you awakened, facing a dreary, or troublesome day, and suddenly a phone call gave you a new direction? or a text message threw back the gloom, opening an entirely new direction for you!?

It can happen that a very common, ordinary day turns dramatically in an unexpected direction. But we already know that; and too often dreading the bad. Here is a dramatic, turn-around experience I had; midway through college—I needed a job so I could stay in college—that Summer, an uncle who owned a restaurant in the North Georgia mountains, offered me a job washing dishes and cleaning. I could live with him and his family at no charge, and save what I made in the restaurant for college in the fall.

I packed up and said goodbye to family and friends, and packed for the trip North. Before bedtime, another uncle, a minister in South Georgia called. He was scheduled for continuing education for the summer and needed help. Since I was a ministerial student, I could lead weekday services, visit hospitals for him; I cold also help baby sit my cousins. He would get me a community job that would actually pay, and I could save for college. Not only was this a 180 degree geographic change in direction, it also changed the direction of my life. Following a curious, labyrinthine—five-year—journey it led to my marrage to Paige, the love of my life.

Everyhere along that journey, from that unexpected phone call to fifty-seven years of marriage— “next” tagged along like a presumptuous puppy, cheerfully—and otherwise tripping along at my heels. I could not have foreseen the outcomes—the highs and lows of those decades of “next.” I am, however, astonished at the exceeding outcomes good of many of those “lows.” Of course I am thankful for the joys that many of “next.”

In a few days, it will be “Next” year. A plethora of resolutions, calendars, and dreams flood our minds. These can help navigate the hours, days, and months ahead. But none of us knows exactly what is next. It is a blessing that we do not know exactly what “next” has in store. If we did know, we would live in terrific anxiety; the bad things would paralyze us with fear; the good things would immobilize us in hopeful anticipation. I think Ira Stanphill said it best in I Don’t Know About Tomorrow;  I don’t know about tomorrow;
I just live from day to day.
I don’t borrow from its sunshine
For its skies may turn to grey.
I don’t worry o’er the future,
For I know what Jesus said.
And today I’ll walk beside Him,
For He knows what lies ahead.

© 2024 Copyright Willis H. Moore