The Next Right Thing

If you've spent much time in the Church you've probably heard this saying "Do the next right thing." Sounds cliche, doesn't it? I'd heard it plenty of times from my Dad before I ever figured out that there was more to this saying than one might think. Perhaps the sheer number of times we usually hear this saying blinds us into thinking we understand it, but there's actually some good theology behind it. Let me explain...


My readers are probably getting tired of hearing about what happened to me over the Spring Semester of 2013, but this is the best example I have. It was March and my grades were badly floundering. Frankly, if the semester had ended that day I would have failed so badly that Baylor would have brought back Daniel Sepulveda just to punt me all the way to Lubbock. There was just enough time left in the year whereby *maybe* just maybe I could pull out some grades that were at least passing, but my track record didn't exactly leave room for hope. I wouldn't have bet on myself. Some major personal overhauling needed to occur and I'd bought into the idea that my horrible study skills and underachievement were just 'what I am'. How could anything change?

That's when the Lord told me "Do the next right thing, this is your act of faith."

We often think of faith as something 'big'. You know, faith starts a ministry in Africa, or answers our deep questions about life when our knowledge is incomplete. Really, faith is taking any action that does not have an immediate pay-off in the belief that it will be to our greater benefit in the long run. We save our money rather than blow it as fast as we earn it because we believe we'll be happier in the long run with a financial safety net, even though in the moment it might be more fun to be a big spender. We exercise despite the sweat and pain because we believe that the health benefits are worth the lost pleasure we might have had if we'd spent the time cramming our faces with doughnuts and watching Netflix. On the flip side, who would save money if they believed the world was going to end tomorrow (making 401k planning a bit irrelevant), and who would exercise if they believed they would never see results? If you don't believe a sacrifice will pay-off eventually, what on earth would induce you to make it? We give up things because we believe what we will eventually gain will be worth it.

Back to how looked in my life for a practical example. I wasn't studying because I believed I could cram and fudge it well enough to pass. I wasn't sleeping well because I believed I could get up if I really wanted to. I wasn't exercising because I didn't really believe I'd see results. I had a lot of false 'faiths' that I was using, even though I didn't think I was showing faith. The Lord had to teach me things like "yes, you are giving up a certain pleasure by putting off Facebook until you've studied, but you need to have faith that the studying will yield results. Results that include not dreading getting a grade back" and "Do you really believe there is something wrong with you that means you *CANNOT* become stronger or faster or more enduring? You have muscles like everyone else, have faith that if you train them they will grow" and "I know you struggle with this sin, but is this sin somehow so powerful that I can't deal with it? Is it really so pleasurable that what I'm offering you instead cannot compare? Have faith and deny yourself and believe I will get you through, what you give up will be trivial compared to to what you gain". It was a process of becoming willing to look beyond the immediate and trust that the results would play out like I believed they would.

I didn't become a Honor Roll Student by the end of that semester, or an Olympic athlete, or as holy as a Saint, but I did make progress. My grades got up to where I at least got C's in most classes and Baylor was willing to work with me to make up the difference. I've begun to exercise more regularly and I've seen my body get a little better each week. I've been letting go of the sins I enjoyed, and while the fight against sin is always a work in progress, I do it less and even desire it a little less. Not because I'm some kind of 'ubermench' superman who just naturally does better, but by submitting to God's process and acting in the assumption that it will be to my benefit.

So take heart, and do the next right thing.