“I’m stuck.” That’s never a good thing, is it? But it’s something we have all felt in our lives. I know I have been there quite frequently, in one way or another. And it seems like I run into person after person who is often stuck as well, whether they realize it or not.
Have you ever been stuck? Maybe it was relationally stuck, where you find yourself in a relationship that you can’t seem to make work and you want to escape. What about being stuck financially? It’s like no matter what you do, or how hard you try to save, there’s always something breaking or some crisis draining that small balance back to almost zero. Or maybe it’s a habit or destructive pattern in your life that you hate and wish were gone, but it never seems to stay away very long.
We could go on and on about the areas where we get stuck. But I think we would be remiss if we failed to also examine what it looks like to be stuck spiritually. When we feel like our relationship with God seems to be going nowhere. We have others around us who seem to find such joy in serving or reading scripture. Their prayer life seems like a real interaction with God and ours seems like a one-sided S.O.S. call at best.
What do we do? How do we get ourselves unstuck?
It’s so easy to feel overwhelmed and hopeless when I am stuck, feeling like I have too far to go. And beyond that, there are times I have tried and failed, that seem to mock me, as if to say, “What’s to stop that from happening again?” I want to give up. But then again, I also want to get unstuck.
I heard someone recently ask one simple question that I think has the ability to give us the traction to get unstuck. It’s a little question that I have begun asking myself: “What’s the next right step I can take?”
That little question takes my focus off the huge gap between where I am and where I want to be and puts it on the part of the path that is relevant at this moment. What is the one next step I need to take? I think we all realize we could make a lot of steps, and some of them would be less than helpful. So by modifying that question, to ask what is the next right step, I force myself to narrow it down, to filter it through a grid of what is the next “right” step.
But how do I know what the right step should be? That’s where God comes in.
Proverbs 3:5-6 says: Trust in the lord with all your heart; do not depend on your own understanding. Seek his will in all you do, and he will show you which path to take. (NLT) In other words, it’s not about what step I want to take, or even what step seems to make the most sense. Often, my best thinking is what got me here.
Instead, I ask, “What step would be in alignment with what I know of God and what is in alignment with what I feel He is telling me to do?” For example, if I am relationally stuck, what do I know is in alignment with what God has told me about forgiveness, or servanthood, or my words, etc. Then, it’s not enough to know it, but I have to actually take that next right step.
This same principle could be transferred to other areas. What is the next step that would honor God the most? With our spiritual lives, pray and ask God what is the Next Right Step? Maybe it is to get into an environment to stimulate your growth, or maybe He will show you an area where you haven’t been obedient. It could be to confess a sin or ask forgiveness from someone. But whatever it is, if we have the courage to ask, I believe God will show us the “Next Right Step” to that life in all its fullness that He came to bring us all.