One of our family's favorite movies over the years has been Frozen, and in the sequel, Anna is trying to work through how to move forward after a particularly devastating personal blow. She sings the song, The Next Right Thing, which challenges her to walk through the immediate next decision, rather than looking at the bigger picture. Kristen Bell, when talking about this song, talked about how impactful it was for her journey. When you don't know what to do, you just do what's next: brush your teeth, make coffee, drive to work.
It's this focus on the micro level that we're leaning into this week. What if we stopped waiting for the exact right thing to come along? The right job. The right opportunity. The right calling. The right moment when everything finally clicks into place. What if, instead, we paid a little more attention to the work immediately in front of us?
Most of us will do dozens of things today that will never make it onto a résumé. We’ll answer a question, make dinner, solve a problem, encourage someone, clean something, make something, teach something, listen to someone. Some of it will feel important. Some of it will feel completely ordinary. But vocation isn't always about discovering some grand purpose or looking at the macro level picture. Instead, it's about bringing our gifts and our attention to whatever is ours to do today. Bezalel didn't need to find a more important job. He needed to use what he had been given.
So today, notice: what is in front of you? Who is in front of you? What do you have in your hands? What is yours to do? Maybe there is an opportunity to use something you're good at. Maybe there is something beautiful you can make. Maybe someone needs the particular kind of patience or humor or creativity that you bring.
We don't have to know how every piece of our lives fits together. We can simply be faithful with the piece we're holding right now. Sometimes purpose isn't something we find. Sometimes it is something we practice.
- Rev. Allison Yankey