As an avid reader, I often check the best-seller lists on Amazon for new, interesting, and value-priced books. Therefore, when I recently discovered Emily P. Freeman’s The Next Right Thing: A Simple, Soulful Practice for Making Life Decisions as a free read for Amazon Prime members ($9.99 to purchase on Amazon), I immediately added it to my Kindle library of free “borrowed” books. However, after reading the first few chapters, I decided I needed to “own” this title rather than simply borrow it. Several passages “spoke” to me so I purchased the book because I wanted to be able to return to, review, and ponder key thoughts and passages.
The Next Right Thing
Appropriately, the title of the book is actually the author’s primary theme. Freeman briefly discusses how Jesus dealt with a number of people in the New Testament and observes:
Rather than a life plan, a clear vision, or a five-year list of goals, the leper, the paralytic, and Jairus and his wife were given clear instructions by Jesus about what to do next—and only next . . . he made the next right thing unmistakably clear . . . Let’s take our cues from Jesus . . . by considering what it means for us to do the next right thing now. Not the next big thing. Not the next impressive thing. Just the next right thing in front of us.
Freeman goes on to explain her purposes in writing, “This is a book about making decisions. It is also a book about making a life.”
Become a Soul Minimalist
Freeman confesses a troubling tendency I also share, “When I have an important decision to make, my tendency is to get more input, not less. I approach my daily decisions and plans for the future like a hoarder gathering opinions, facts, perspectives, and lists.” However, Freeman observes, “ . . . we are often looking for direction in all the wrong places. Often the clues to our next decision remain within us, unheard and undiscovered.” She advises:
What I’m finding to be most helpful more than any list, question, or sage advice is simply to get quiet in a room with Jesus . . . when you have a big decision to make, you need all the love and support you can possibly get. The only place I know to find that for sure is in the presence of Jesus.
Look for Arrows
During an important season of personal transition, Emily and her youth pastor husband John, were hoping for clear answers. However, all they got were what they describe as “faint arrows.” Therefore Freeman writes:
God often gives a faint vision of things before they ever come to be. It’s not a full form, more of a shadow, not focused or clear. It doesn’t come with steps or money or sure things, but it does come with hope. And hope is what keeps you going in the fog. Instead of those black-and-white answers we tend to love so much, what if we began to look for arrows instead?
Emily explains and advises, “We were looking for answers but what we got instead were arrows, and so we followed them.”
Am I Being Led by Love or Pushed by Fear?
One of the biggest enemies of sound and courageous decision making is fear. Freeman observes, “Fear works both ways, keeping you from doing things you might want to do and convincing you that you have to do things you don’t want to do.” Therefore, she advises, “When it comes to hard decisions . . . ask this question . . . Am I being led by love or pushed by fear?“
Sometimes the Next Right Thing is to Wait
I found the first two-thirds of Freeman’s book the most meaningful. Some of the latter chapters seemed to read more like a well-written blog post rather than a significant ongoing development of the book’s primary theme. After all, Freeman does write a blog and also has a regular podcast appropriately titled, The Next Right Thing Podcast. However, the following paragraph serves as an apt conclusion for the book:
Our next right thing will often be to wait. Give time to allow the clutter to clear. Create space for your soul to breathe. Make room for your desire to show up at the table. Begin to name the unnamed things. Wait. Listen. Repeat.
A Thoughtful and Worthwhile Read
I found The Next Right Thing a thought-provoking and worthwhile read. There are passages I need to re-read and ponder. However, I find both hope and encouragement in Freeman’s closing thought, “Let’s remember that though we may have to wait and see, we never have to wait to be.” I highly recommend the book.