The Next Thing
God really spoke to me through the story of Maggie Doyne. Or rather, God reminded and reconfirmed to me something He has been speaking to me a lot about recently.
If you're not familiar with Maggie Doyne, please read her story here or watch this video. You will be inspired by this remarkable young woman.
Ok, did you read/watch her story? It seems to me that her amazing journey can be summed up by this phrase: Be faithful to the next thing.
When Maggie decided to take a year off after high school before going on to college, she had no idea that in a few short years she would be living in Nepal and running an orphanage and school which she built. She had no grand plan. In fact, she took the year off because she had no plan. But here's the way her story unfolded:
* She went on a 3 month backpacking expedition with an organization called LeapNow (http://www.leapnow.org/).
* When it came time to decide what to do with the next 3 months, she asked a mentor where she could make a difference and work with kids. She was directed to India. She went.
* In Northern India, she kept encountering young Nepalese refugees. An opportunity opened up to accompany a teenage girl back to her war-ravaged village in Nepal. Maggie went.
* In Nepal, she saw more orphans. One little girl in particular captured her heart. She decided she could help that one girl by paying her tuition for school.
* Next she provided for a few more young girls to go to school.
* Next she had her parents wire over her life savings ($5,000.00) and bought a piece of land. She assembled a team from the local community and dug the foundations of what would become an orphanage.
* Realizing she would need more money to complete the job, she used her return ticket to fly home and begin working and fundraising--beginning by babysitting and having garage sales. Within 5 months, she had amassed nearly $60,000.00.
* She returned to Nepal and finished the orphanage.
* She created a non-profit organization.
* More money came in. She was awarded $100,000.00 by dosomething.org. She used the money to build a school.
* She is now 24 years old and has formal custody of 40 Nepalese orphans. Her school employs 14 full-time teachers and has 230 students, who also receive a hot meal each day.
Who knows what the "next thing" will be for Maggie Doyne or what, in another 5 years the aggregate of all those little "next things" will look like? Jesus taught that whoever could be faithful with little could also be trusted with much. Maggie Doyne seems to be living proof of that.
And this is exactly what God keeps saying to me: Be faithful to the next thing. I don't need to see the master plan. I just need to be faithful and step out into the next thing that God is putting in front of me. I can do that. God has shown me what the "next thing" for me is. It's not so hard to discern just that. And, it's a little scary, but doable. If I'm faithful to it, that's enough. The results--the bigger picture--is in God's hands.
I can do the next thing. When I focus on trying to do the big scheme--the grand strategy--I end up going nowhere. But I can do what's next. My friend Jude has a great saying, which he has said for years: "Just show up." I love that. I can do that. I can be faithful to the next thing.
Thanks Maggie.
If you're not familiar with Maggie Doyne, please read her story here or watch this video. You will be inspired by this remarkable young woman.
Ok, did you read/watch her story? It seems to me that her amazing journey can be summed up by this phrase: Be faithful to the next thing.
When Maggie decided to take a year off after high school before going on to college, she had no idea that in a few short years she would be living in Nepal and running an orphanage and school which she built. She had no grand plan. In fact, she took the year off because she had no plan. But here's the way her story unfolded:
* She went on a 3 month backpacking expedition with an organization called LeapNow (http://www.leapnow.org/).
* When it came time to decide what to do with the next 3 months, she asked a mentor where she could make a difference and work with kids. She was directed to India. She went.
* In Northern India, she kept encountering young Nepalese refugees. An opportunity opened up to accompany a teenage girl back to her war-ravaged village in Nepal. Maggie went.
* In Nepal, she saw more orphans. One little girl in particular captured her heart. She decided she could help that one girl by paying her tuition for school.
* Next she provided for a few more young girls to go to school.
* Next she had her parents wire over her life savings ($5,000.00) and bought a piece of land. She assembled a team from the local community and dug the foundations of what would become an orphanage.
* Realizing she would need more money to complete the job, she used her return ticket to fly home and begin working and fundraising--beginning by babysitting and having garage sales. Within 5 months, she had amassed nearly $60,000.00.
* She returned to Nepal and finished the orphanage.
* She created a non-profit organization.
* More money came in. She was awarded $100,000.00 by dosomething.org. She used the money to build a school.
* She is now 24 years old and has formal custody of 40 Nepalese orphans. Her school employs 14 full-time teachers and has 230 students, who also receive a hot meal each day.
Who knows what the "next thing" will be for Maggie Doyne or what, in another 5 years the aggregate of all those little "next things" will look like? Jesus taught that whoever could be faithful with little could also be trusted with much. Maggie Doyne seems to be living proof of that.
And this is exactly what God keeps saying to me: Be faithful to the next thing. I don't need to see the master plan. I just need to be faithful and step out into the next thing that God is putting in front of me. I can do that. God has shown me what the "next thing" for me is. It's not so hard to discern just that. And, it's a little scary, but doable. If I'm faithful to it, that's enough. The results--the bigger picture--is in God's hands.
I can do the next thing. When I focus on trying to do the big scheme--the grand strategy--I end up going nowhere. But I can do what's next. My friend Jude has a great saying, which he has said for years: "Just show up." I love that. I can do that. I can be faithful to the next thing.
Thanks Maggie.
1 Comments:
Maggie may not have had a plan, but what's important to note is that she DID something. I have found that when I'm involved in doing something, even something mundane or totally unrelated to what I'd like to be doing on a grand scale, opportunity finds me. I guess there's faith involved in that rather than just sitting idly by, depressed or discouraged that nothing's happening, we can live life trusting that God is working out the details.
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