I had just finished a brutal fall semester in college. Change was becoming the very present norm. My major was unsettled. Some of my close relationships had gone through transitions that were tough to swallow. To top it all off, I had a very non-existent dating life. I was unsure if I was even in the right spot. Everything seemed to come up as a big fat question mark alongside my piles and piles of dirty laundry. I had come home for Christmas break. Upon arrival my mom informed me that I would be getting all my wisdom teeth out two days after Christmas. Merry Christmas to me. That is just what I wanted to do during my break after the whip of a semester I had dredged through. Sitting at home with cheeks puffed up like a blow fish and drinking milk shakes through a straw was exactly the Christmas break I was dreaming of.

Great.

I felt trapped in a weird “tweener” place in life. To be honest I was trying with all my might to trust God; and as Elizabeth Elliot, the great missionary has said, “When in a tough place in life, just do the next thing.” I was just doing the next thing. I went home for break, I spent time with my family and I had my wisdom teeth out.

Well, like I said, I ended up with the cheeks of a blow fish and slurped milk shakes through a straw for a week. After several days, the swelling had gone down enough to emerge from seclusion. I decided to join my family for church. Getting out had to happen soon, in more ways than one. Although I wasn’t really feeling like my usual social butterfly self I knew the “next thing” was church on Sunday morning. So I went.

The discussion question that morning was “What are you waiting on and how are you dealing with God’s timing?” That was the exact question I was deep in the middle of asking myself. As we drug our folding chairs into the semblance of a semi-circle the teacher asked if anyone felt compelled to share. Silence fell until I spoke up and gave a puffy cheeked schpeel about how it had been a tough semester of learning to trust God’s timing and plan. Submitting to God’s will was what I was in the middle of doing.

After I completed my wisdom tooth soliloquy, this guy sitting across the room shared that he felt in the same place and was trusting God to lead his next step. My attention was caught and captivated by the deep navy blue eyes that seemed to be staring back at me. He was certainly playing the part of the “tall, dark and handsome” guy in his steel gray dress shirt, black slacks and matte gray tie. My heart was fluttering, but I quickly dashed my own hopes with the reminder of my inflated cheeks. The class ended and as I was walking down the hall that guy–that tall, dark and handsome guy–called my name. I turned to the side and stopped. We had a five minute conversation. A five minute exchange of buddled nerves and anxious energy and a laundry list of heart beating“maybe-s” that changed my life forever.

Who was that tall, dark and handsome guy sitting across the college Sunday school room? It was my Coach-man husband, and the love of my life. They say the best things come when you least expect them. I think I agree. Toby definitely qualifies as a “best thing when I was least expecting it.” God got my attention that day and set something ablaze that I never could have anticipated when I was simply “doing the next thing.”

“Now Moses was pasturing the flock of Jethro his father-in-law, the priest of Midian; and he led the flock to the west side of the wilderness, and came to Horeb, the mountain of God. And the angel of the Lord appeared to him in a blazing fire from the midst of a bush; and he looked, and behold, the bush was burning with fire, yet the bush was not consumed. So Moses said, ‘I must turn aside now, and see this marvelous sight, why the bush is not burned up.’ When the Lord saw that he turned aside to look, god called to him from the midst of the bush, and said, ‘Moses, Moses!’ And he said ‘Here I am.” Exodus 3:1-4

Moses was in the middle of doing his daily routine when God decided to come in and forever stir things up. By way of a burning bush, no less. Moses was anointed and favored by God from birth, so maybe God would have eventually gotten his attention. But what if that one phrase … “When the Lord saw that he turned aside to look” changed his life forever. That one act of turning to the side to see the burning bush while in the middle of “just doing the next thing” was the very action of faith that freed generations of captives?

When Moses was curious enough to turn aside and look at the burning bush, God noticed. It was only after Moses acted on faith that God spoke. Are you curious enough in the middle of your “just doing the next thing” life to turn aside and look for God?

Is the pain of divorce splintering the fairytale of your life? Turn aside and look at the burning bush while you submit your future to God. The next thing in life may be to simply get up and breathe in and out one more day. There is glory and redemption to be set ablaze, just keep doing the next thing. And then when God calls out be brave enough to turn to the side to look.

Are you burdened for the lost and abandoned? Your heart can’t seem to bear another child going without the love and affection of a parent. The next thing in life may be to stop waiting and start adopting. Turn aside and start loving.

Is there a dream in your heart that feels more like a dangling carrot that you never can quite catch and consume? A dream that once felt like a promise from the Lord is starting to feel like a crazy concoction from your own ludicrous ambitions? Hold fast and continue to perfect your craft. Stay after it, continue to submit it. A consuming fire is coming to set it ablaze. You only need to continue turning to the side to watch God light it up.

Did you give your heart and treasure to someone that didn’t treasure it back? Turn your gaze back to the Lord, the King. Let him show you treasure rooms your heart can’t possibly contain. Allow Him the chance to reveal to you that the best is indeed yet to come.

“So Moses said, ‘I must turn aside now, and see this marvelous sight, why the bush is not burned up.’ WHEN THE LORD SAW THAT HE TURNED ASIDE TO LOOK, God called to him from the midst of the bush…” Exodus 3:3-4, emphasis added

My educated guess suggests that if God could burn a bush without consuming it He could have called out to Moses as he was wondering around the pasture. But He didn’t. He waited on Moses to turn aside first.

I have had times in life where I was so desperate for a word from God I could hardly breathe. I have been swallowed by the overwhelming nothingness of my “just doing the next thing” surroundings. I have been so worn out with prayer and asking God to come into the middle of my circumstances that I have at times just dropped my face in the middle of my Bible and bawled my eyes out. Not able to say another word. And then …

The burning bush is revealed, and I am compelled to turn to the side and gaze at its glory. Sometimes when I least expect it. I can say without a shadow of a doubt that the times God has spoken after I feel like He has been so silent and I have just been “doing the next thing” are some of the sweetest, most memorable, most treasured moments of my life.

Maybe in the middle of “just doing the next thing,” you’ll turn your head to the side and it will be the moment your life is set ablaze– and changed forever.

Cari Trotter

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