What Next?
As you have looked back over good and bad memories as well as changes, you may have had some thoughts about what comes next. This is a good time to consider what might happen next in your life. You may even want to propose some possible next steps to yourself—or even to others.
What Next in Bible Times?
Jonah
We do not know what happened next in Jonah’s life. In the New Testament Jesus mentioned that he would be in the earth for the same amount of time as Jonah was in the fish. Then he went on to note that Jonah’s preaching resulted in the repentance of the people of Nineveh; however Jesus does not add anything happening with Jonah at a later time (Matthew 12:39-41, Matthew 16:4, Luke 11:29-30).
Paul
After settling a theological dispute that arose during their time back home, Paul proposed a next step to Barnabas. Paul said, “Let’s go back to all the towns (including Antioch, Iconium, and Lystra) where we preached the word of the Lord and see how they are doing” (Acts 15:36). Look at Paul’s proposal.
Barnabas apparently agreed that it was a good idea and added that he “wanted to take John, also called Mark, with them.” However, Paul did not think that was a good idea.
A proposal is just suggesting some possible options without committing to any of them. It is good to suggest a number of possibilities, and then come back later to make final decisions about them after much prayer and seeking God’s will.
Paul was a highly educated man climbing the prestige ladder of Judaism when God called him. Some people think of Paul as immediately becoming a missionary after God spoke to him. However, that is not the case as Paul himself wrote in Galatians 1. Before beginning his well-known missionary career, Paul spent three years learning from God in Arabia, then time with Peter and James—and it was 14 years later at the end of his first term of missionary service when he again went up to Jerusalem. He spent more than a decade learning and serving before the church at Antioch commissioned him for missionary service.
What Next Today?
My Story
Some changes took place immediately after my first short-term service. A few weeks after returning, I wrote, “In the three weeks since we returned, we have presented the work in Brazil to two groups at church, taken shares in two more missionaries, and started writing about missions.”
During the next few years Bonnie and I approached several mission agencies to see if they had a place where we could serve. When Bonnie said she was a certified elementary teacher, every one of them had a place for her. When I told them I had taught psychology for a quarter of a century, they all said that they could use counselors. However, when I told them that my PhD was in experimental psychology (rather than counseling psychology), they had nothing for me.
During that same time we made several more short-term mission trips to Spain where I gave a series of lectures on adolescence, to Bolivia where I helped raise funds to build a university, and a couple times to Jamaica where we helped conduct Bible schools. However, none of these fit me. I am not a good lecturer, I am not a fund raiser, and I do not work well with children.
Since all the agencies we approached said they could use counselors, in 1992 at the age of 50 I enrolled in a graduate program to respecialize in counseling psychology. I spent the next four years teaching at the undergraduate level full-time and taking graduate level courses half-time to learn what I needed to learn to provide member care for missionaries. At age 55 we made our first member care visit in 1997, and I quit teaching in 2002 (age 60) to devote full-time to member care.
God never blinded me with a bright light and did not give me specific instructions (as he did with Paul in Acts 9), but he did guide me step-by-step over the next 13 years as I prepared to serve in member care of missionaries.
Your Story
You are now at the point of writing more of your story. What you write depends on you and God. In general, your story can take three courses. First, you can continue your story in the direction it was going before you made your short-term missionary service. Second, you may change your story in a minor way to include more of the same types of things you were doing before you went. Third, you may change your story dramatically, taking it in a very different direction.
First, if you are going to continue with no changes, that needs no further consideration
Second, if you change your story to include more similar things you have been doing, what might you add? List some possibilities below.
· Praying. List ways you might add praying for missionaries. (Pray for missions a specified time each day. Start a missionary prayer meeting with others. Contact mission agencies for prayer requests. Etc.).
· Giving. List ways to increase your mission donations (giving a specified amount monthly, increasing the percentage of your offerings for missions, holding fund raisers for missions, etc.).
· Serving. List ways of serving in the church (serving on the missions committee, volunteering to help with missionary mailings, writing monthly to missionaries your church supports, etc.)
· List other ways God may have brought to mind.
Third, if you change your story dramatically to include missions, what might you do? List some possibilities below.
· What mission agencies might you contact to see how you might fill needs they have?
· What new training might you get to prepare you to fill a need in missions?
· What kinds of additional short-term service could you offer on a continuing basis?
· What ways of serving has God laid on your heart?
A Final Comment
People often ask how can they know what God wants them to do? How can they know where God wants them to serve? Some people seem to be looking for some dramatic event in which God specifically tells them where God wants them to go or what he wants them to do.
Sometimes God does call people through dramatic events, such as when Paul had the vision of the man from Macedonia begging him to come over into Macedonia to help those who lived there. Paul and those serving with him immediately prepared to leave for Macedonia, concluding that God had called them to preach the gospel there (Acts 16:9-10).
At other times, God calls through much less dramatic means, such as in Acts chapter 15, the chapter before the dramatic Macedonian call. After the people at headquarters in Jerusalem had settled the theological dispute, they wanted to let the churches know their decision. Then it “seemed good” to the apostles, the elders and the whole church to send Paul, Barnabas, Judas, and Silas to take their letter to Antioch (Acts 15:22). Thus these four men received their call as to what to do and where to go through what “seemed good” to the leaders in Jerusalem.
In their letter, the leaders wrote that since they were in agreement, it “seemed good” for them to send the men with the letter to explain it. They went on to say that it “seemed good” to the Holy Spirit as well as to them to not overburden them with too many rules (Acts 15:25-28). In these cases, people received their calls to service through what “seemed good” to others. (Note: Although several recent paraphrases use different words in verses 22, 25, and 28, the same Greek word is used in all three, and the most common translation of it is “seemed good.”)
Be careful not to be so concerned about a dramatic call that you miss what God is saying to you in much more usual ways.