I can look back on my life and pinpoint several pivotal moments that impacted my faith journey; mission trips that changed my worldview, conferences that spurred me toward righteousness, Holidays at home with family that filled me up, even heart to hearts with friends and mentors that gave me the guidance and wisdom I needed for big life decisions. I’m so thankful for those experiences but I can also pinpoint moments where the rubber met the road and I had to ask myself the question “what now?” Life comes at you fast and it can throw a wrench in what seems like an easy path forward and we have to regroup.

Over the years as I’ve served in campus ministry, I’ve observed students coming home from a summer of serving the Lord at camps or in their church or even overseas with a renewed energy and vision yet over the course of the semester, the stress starts to dim that sparkle in their eyes and it’s like they forgot all that God taught them. It’s in these moments that I try to step in and ask that same question I’ve asked myself many times now – what now?

We often get caught up in the lie that this new found clarity we’ve gathered from the Holy Spirit in itself has the power to sustain us as we move forward – like the fumes of this experience are enough to carry us forward and we forget to dive back into the well from which those fumes were formed – the presence of the Lord. When life comes at us, we have to be armed and ready to fight and far too often, we are not as prepared for the battle as we thought.

So at the start of the new year, I ask the question – What Now? Taking the experiences you’ve had all that you’ve learned – What Now? Let’s make a game plan.

Take out your journal today and write down something that you have felt the Lord telling you to do.

Maybe it was one Sunday during a sermon or while you were away for the summer on vacation with your family? The Lord impressed something on your heart and you may have forgotten it. Think back and write it down.

Did you just get back from Passion? Write down your biggest take aways.

It may be something big and scary that you want to forget or something small that didn’t even seem like a big deal – write it down anyway.

Now write these two words in all caps – “WHAT NOW?”

Make your game plan. And tell someone so they can walk this road with you.

No matter the stage of life that you are in, the Lord wants to do big things in and through you – let him.