Do the Next Thing

Whatsoever thy hand findeth to do, do it with thy might; for there is no work, nor device, nor knowledge, nor wisdom, in the grave, whither thou goest. ECCLESIASTES 9:10

If Elisabeth Elliot had a motto, it was four words long. She did not invent it. She found it in an anonymous old poem, written in imitation of antique English spelling, which tells of a message carried from an old parsonage by the sea, said to have been carved there as an ancient inscription. The refrain of the poem is a single counsel: “Doe the nexte thynge.” She quoted it for decades, in her writing, in her talks and on the radio, and it became so closely tied to her name that many people assume she wrote it. She did not, and she never claimed to. But she made it her own.

The poem and the counsel

The poem is a simple piece of old devotional verse, and its argument is simple too. The believer who is anxious about the future, bewildered by guidance, or overwhelmed by the size of what lies ahead is not asked to see the whole road. He is asked to take the next step, trusting God with the rest. The poem puts it in a couplet that captures her teaching almost exactly: “Moment by moment, let down from Heaven, / Time, opportunity, and guidance are given.”

That is the heart of it. God does not give us tomorrow’s strength today, or next year’s guidance this morning. He gives what is needed for the present hour, and He asks for obedience in the present hour. The rest He keeps in His own hands.

Take therefore no thought for the morrow: for the morrow shall take thought for the things of itself. Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof. MATTHEW 6:34

She made it plain that this counsel had carried her through the darkest seasons of her life. When the news came from the Curaray, there was still a baby to feed, a station to run, and Quichua believers who needed teaching. When Addison Leitch was dying, there was still the daily care of a sick man. She did not find the strength for widowhood in a single heroic act of resignation. She found it in the next duty, and then the next, and then the next.

Duty is not a dirty word

In an age that prizes self-expression, she spoke unashamedly of duty. She believed that most of God’s will for most people, most of the time, is not hidden at all. It is the plain task in front of them: the dishes, the letter, the child, the job, the neighbour, the prayer. The Christian who is waiting for a great sign before doing anything has usually overlooked a great deal of guidance already given.

And whatsoever ye do, do it heartily, as to the Lord, and not unto men. COLOSSIANS 3:23

This was not drudgery dressed up as piety. She held that ordinary work, done for God, is a form of worship, and that there is a peculiar freedom in it. The person who does the next thing is released from the tyranny of the whole. She does not have to solve her life. She has only to be faithful in the hour she has been given. Jesus pointed His disciples to the same freedom when He told them that the one who is faithful in the least is faithful also in much.

Closely tied to this was her conviction that the present moment is the only place where we can meet God. The past is forgiven and finished; the future is not yet given. Anxiety, as she often observed, lives almost entirely in the future, in imagined disasters that may never come and for which no grace has yet been supplied. Regret lives in the past. But God is the God of today, and today is where He gives His help.

This is the day which the LORD hath made; we will rejoice and be glad in it. PSALM 118:24

Many of the short pieces gathered from her newsletter in Keep a Quiet Heart return to this theme in one form or another, for readers lying awake with worry, stuck at a decision, or unable to imagine the years ahead. Again and again her counsel is the same. Do not try to carry tomorrow. Ask what God has given you to do now, and do it. The quiet heart, in her teaching, is not a heart that has understood everything. It is a heart that has stopped trying to carry what belongs to God.

Obedience as the way to light

There is a further point here, and it is easy to miss. She believed that obedience is often the way to understanding, and not the other way round. We want to see before we act. God frequently asks us to act before we see. The next step taken in faith becomes the place from which the step after it can be seen. Guidance, in her teaching, is less like a map handed over at the start of a journey and more like a lamp carried along a dark path, lighting a few yards at a time.

If any man will do his will, he shall know of the doctrine, whether it be of God, or whether I speak of myself. JOHN 7:17

This is why she had so little patience with endless introspection about God’s will. She did not despise the question; she had agonised over it herself, through years of uncertainty about marriage and missionary service. But she came to believe that most people who say they do not know God’s will are not lacking information. They are lacking obedience to what they already know. Do that, she would say in substance, and more light will come.

Who is among you that feareth the LORD, that obeyeth the voice of his servant, that walketh in darkness, and hath no light? let him trust in the name of the LORD, and stay upon his God. ISAIAH 50:10

Weighing it

This is one of the most practically useful things she ever taught, and it rests on solid ground. Jesus Himself forbade anxiety about tomorrow, and the wisdom literature everywhere commends diligence in the task at hand. Two cautions are worth adding.

The first is that the next thing is not always the obvious thing. Sometimes the next thing God gives is to stop, to rest, to grieve, to seek counsel, or to change direction altogether. A rule of duty, applied mechanically, can become a way of running from what God is saying. She would have agreed; the next thing, for her, was always the next thing God gave, not merely the next item on a list.

The second is that busyness can masquerade as obedience. A person can keep doing the next thing in order to avoid ever asking the larger question. The cure is not to abandon the counsel but to remember its root. It is not a technique for getting through the day. It is an act of trust in the God who holds the whole day, and the whole life, in His hand.

FOR REFLECTION AND ACTION

1. What is the next thing God has given you to do today? Write it down, and do it before you read further.

2. Name one anxiety about the future that you have been carrying. Ask whether any grace has yet been given for it, and hand it back to God.

3. Think of a decision on which you have been waiting for clearer guidance. Is there something you already know you should do? Do that first.

4. Choose one ordinary task this week — washing up, a commute, a routine report — and do it deliberately as an offering to the Lord.

5. Read Matthew 6:25–34 each morning this week, and pray it before you plan your day.

A PRAYER

Lord, You give me today and not tomorrow, strength for this hour and not for the next. Forgive me for trying to carry what You have not yet given.

Show me the next thing, and give me grace to do it heartily, as to You and not to men.

When I cannot see the road ahead, let me take the one step I can see, and trust You for the light that follows.

Keep my heart quiet in Your hand, today and every day, through Jesus Christ my Lord. Amen.