Moving Forward (Do the Next Thing)

Moving Forward (Do the Next Thing)

There is almost no condition with the body that movement will not improve.  We were made to move, and being immobile has negative effects of various kinds on the body.  It seems now with most surgeries, the medical staff wants you up and moving as soon as possible.  With the exception of keeping a bone immobilized so healing can take place, movement is the key to function.  Range of motion is necessary, once the bone is healed, to enable the joint to move to its fullest capacity. 

There have been studies done of young, healthy people where they performed some type of obstacle course and were timed.  Then they were made to remain in bed for a week, getting up only to go to the bathroom.  The obstacle course was repeated, and after only one week, the scores on the obstacle course times went down fairly significantly.  In just one week, a decline had started. 

In so many areas in life, movement forward is key.  Taking that next right step, doing the next right thing, no matter how small, is movement in the right direction.  In occupational therapy, we spend time on activity analysis and breaking down an activity into smaller, achievable steps. I remember having to, along with my team of fellow students, design and conduct a study as part of the requirements of my graduate degree.  This seemed absolutely overwhelming at the outset, but the further we got into it, the more we could see it was possible.  One of my professors said, “Remember, you eat an elephant one bite at a time!”   That was the first time I had ever heard that phrase, but have used it often since!

One of the wisest voices I love to learn from is Elisabeth Elliot.  For those unfamiliar with her, or the story, Elisabeth and her husband Jim, were missionaries to Ecuador in the 1950s, where they were involved in an effort to reach a violent tribe with the gospel.  Jim, along with 4 other missionaries, was killed by those in the tribe.  Unbelievably, Elisabeth remained in Ecuador, eventually working with the very people who had killed her husband.  She often used the phrase, “Do the next thing.”

The following is from a transcript of a radio show with Elisabeth explaining where that phrase came from:

“When I went back to my jungle station after the death of my first husband, Jim Elliot, I was faced with many confusions and uncertainties. I had a good many new roles, besides that of being a single parent and a widow. I was alone on a jungle station that Jim and I had manned together. I had to learn to do all kinds of things, which I was not trained or prepared in any way to do. It was a great help to me simply to do the next thing.

Have you had the experience of feeling as if you’ve got far too many burdens to bear, far too many people to take care of, far too many things on your list to do? You just can’t possibly do it, and you get in a panic and you just want to sit down and collapse in a pile and feel sorry for yourself.

Well, I’ve felt that way a good many times in my life, and I go back over and over again to an old Saxon legend, which I’m told is carved in an old English parsonage somewhere by the sea. I don’t know where this is. But this is a poem which was written about that legend.

The legend is “Do the next thing.” And it’s spelled in what I suppose is Saxon spelling. “D-O-E” for “do,” “the,” and then next, “N-E-X-T.” “Thing”-“T-H-Y-N-G-E.”

The poem says, “Do it immediately, do it with prayer, do it reliantly, casting all care. Do it with reverence, tracing His hand who placed it before thee with earnest command. Stayed on omnipotence, safe ‘neath His wing, leave all resultings, do the next thing.” That is a wonderfully saving truth. Just do the next thing.

So I went back to my station, took my ten-month-old baby, tried to take each duty quietly as the will of God for the moment.”

Maybe you find yourself in your own set of circumstances where doing nothing seems preferable to the challenge ahead of you.  Perhaps you are mired in depression and find it hard to even do simple daily tasks.  Pick one thing that you will accomplish – for example, unload the dishwasher, take a shower, wash one load of clothes.  Take one step, even if it’s a small one.  Maybe you want to change directions in your career.  Take one step – explore other options, talk to some people who have followed a similar path, or look at furthering your education.  Maybe you want to do more for others but don’t know where to start– do one kind thing for someone today, even something as simple as paying someone a sincere compliment.  Maybe there is a dream in you yet unrealized. Take that first step toward making the dream a reality. 

God wants us to move forward.  He is a creator, who works in the lives of his created ones, and promises that He makes all things new.  He gives beauty for ashes and trades a garment of praise for that heavy load you are carrying.

“Remember not the former things, nor consider the things of old. Behold, I am doing a new thing; now it springs forth, do you not perceive it? I will make a way in the wilderness and rivers in the desert.”  Isaiah 43:18-19

Move forward.  Do the next thing.  You’re headed in the right direction.