This happens often when I watch a movie with the kids: I'm half-bored, mostly there for the weight of somebody's head on my arm, not really tracking the plot — and then out of nowhere, BAM. Crying.

This time it was Frozen 2. This song.

[Sidebar: this song is so deep it’s actually insane it’s in a kids movie. Reminds me of this joke.](https://youtu.be/kFkClV2gM-s?si=lkMRHMWowY_kz-pt)

Sidebar: this song is so deep it’s actually insane it’s in a kids movie. Reminds me of this joke.

Those insta-cries are always the Spirit's whisper. So the choice is to sit down and figure out why. To listen.

Just do the next right thing Take a step, step again

The context in the movie is darkness. Grief, depression, the place where anything past one step is too much.

But over the years I've come to think of this as fundamental to our whole walk. Not just the dark stretches. Even when everything is fine. Do the next right thing — the “NRT”, in my journal. Take that step, and trust Him with the one after it.

So I ask, in the journal: what's the NRT here? Not what's the plan for the next five years. Just, what's actually in front of me — the opportunity, the problem — and what's the step? (for me it's often asking for help)

As a daily practice this helps. But I want it smaller than daily. Moment by moment.

What's the next right thing for my family's future? 👉🏻 What's the next right thing for my family's day? 👉🏻 What's the next right thing for this moment, with the kids?

A missionary came to speak to my Mission of God class. He said people always ask him the same thing — how did you get here? Full-time, overseas, the whole life. And his answer was that it happened in a thousand small yeses. Not a map. Just staying close and saying yes in all the little ways.

But what does that actually look like? That’s the journey I’m on to figure out! Right now it looks like setting my heart on Him in the morning, then coming back, and coming back, and coming back through the day. Bringing Him into whatever my hands and my head are already doing.

When you're abiding, attuned, the NRT usually feels less like a word from heaven and more like following your gut. It still takes attention.

Since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit. — Galatians 5:25

But what if I get it wrong? What if I'm careless and inattentive, not listening, and I pick the wrong thing instead of the next right thing?

When that fear gets loud in me, it's usually a sign I've taken God out of the picture. I'm standing at the trailhead alone with a map I can't read, and the outcome is mine to carry. No wonder it's heavy.

The step is with Him. Not a test He's grading from somewhere off to the side.

We can trust Him.

So the invitation is to get more childlike about it. Take one step. And if it was the wrong one — or the wrong five — let your good Father turn you around.

Think of a kid in the woods with her dad. She isn't navigating. She's crouched over a mushroom, running ahead, doubling back, joyfully abandoned to the whole thing, because it has not once occurred to her that she could be lost. Her dad knows where she is. If she wanders too far he'll say her name. She might still trip, still get scratched up. That doesn't stop her.