Remember when you graduated high school and/or college? The question that you heard over and over again?

“So, what’s next?”

It seems that our culture is obsessed with knowing what is going to happen next or when it going to happen. You start dating someone and they ask, “When are you getting engaged?”. You get engaged and they ask, “When are you getting married? When are you having kids?”, etcetera, etcetera.  It never ends.

Maybe you didn’t dread this question like I did. Maybe you had a clear answer and goal for what was going to happen next. Personally, I don’t always know. And, it seems like when I do have an answer, God inevitably leads me somewhere completely different.

I don’t think God doesn’t want us to have hopes, dreams, or goals. I think that he values these things and that often he places them on our heart. But he wants our hearts first and foremost.

And, wherever our hearts are, he meets us there.

Not in the “So, what’s next?” (though he is there, too), but in the now-moments that we too often forget to revel in, to praise Him in. We forget that he is willing to meet us here, where we are broken and needy, not where we have it together and are all cleaned up.

This goes all the way back to Adam and Eve. After The Fall, Adam and Eve realized they were naked and were ashamed (Genesis 3:7). God saw them hiding and while His heart was saddened by the fact that they now felt shame, he fashioned clothes for them to cover themselves (Genesis 3:21). He met them in their shame of their nakedness and provided for them right then and there. Even after they failed Him in the one thing that He asked of them.

So, friends, dream your dreams and plan your “So, what’s next? But remember, that God meets you right here, right now regardless of the state you are in.

Ask yourself, “How did God provide today? What do I have to be thankful for? Where is God in the here and now?” and I believe He will begin to change your perspective on your “What’s next?”.