Excerpt 3: The Next Right Thing
An insight into Chapter 18 - The Next Right Thing
(from The Radical Recall to Rest © 2025 Joshua Paul Barker / A Curious Follower)
There’s a strange pull that often comes after clarity. Once the clutter is cleared – physically, emotionally, spiritually – we feel the urge to fill it again. But this time with something better. Something brilliant. Something new. We reach for colour-coded schedules, fresh routines, bold resolutions. We picture ourselves waking early, praying longer, eating cleaner, becoming better in every way. It’s the temptation of the overhaul – the idea that real change must arrive all at once, in a sweeping, dramatic transformation.
But transformation rarely starts that way.
Big shifts can be inspiring – but they can also be overwhelming. They can paralyse us before we begin, because life doesn’t often give us the luxury of a clean break or a blank page. Most of the time, change happens in the middle of things – while the washing machine is on, the bills need paying, and the kids are calling from the other room. Most of the time, transformation comes not through a grand vision, but through the next right thing.
The next right thing might be small. It might seem ordinary. It might not feel worthy of a journal entry or a social-media caption. But that’s where faith meets real life – in the quiet courage to take one step, make one decision, breathe one prayer. We don’t need to have the whole path laid out. We just need to move with God – one moment at a time.
You don’t need a full vision for the rest of your life today. You don’t need to overhaul your entire routine this week. What you need, what most of us need, is to take the next right step. That might look like resting instead of rushing. Asking for help. Making a phone call. Saying no. Saying yes. Beginning again.
Doing the next right thing is not a compromise. It’s not the ‘lesser’ version of bold faith. It’s what faith actually looks like – trust with shoes on. Because the truth is, you don’t need to know the whole way forward to begin. You just need to know that God is already with you – and then take one small, faithful step in His direction.
One of the greatest obstacles to movement is the pressure to know everything before we begin. We tell ourselves we’ll rest once we’ve worked everything out. We’ll slow down once life feels more stable. We’ll take a step when we’ve got a clearer picture, a five-year plan, or a sign in the sky. But that’s not how Jesus led people. He didn’t hand out blueprints or detailed strategies. He didn’t recruit His disciples with timelines and certainty. He simply said, “Come. Follow.”
No destination given. Just a direction. A presence to walk with – not a map to master.
And yet – how easily we fall into the trap of waiting until we have it all figured out. I’ve known that feeling more times than I can count. I remember it vividly during my Masters dissertation, the pressure to get it right, to have every section perfectly mapped out before I typed a single word. But the more I stared at the whole thing, the more frozen I became. I knew what I wanted to say. I believed in the heart of it. But the scope paralysed me. That kind of analysis paralysis where you spend hours at a screen and still end the day with a blank page.
It’s been the same with this book. If I’d let myself focus too much on the end, I might never have begun. The sheer weight of wanting to do it well could’ve crushed the desire to do it at all. And when we live like that, waiting until we feel certain or confident or ready, the new habits fade. The dreams stay small. The healing stays on hold. And procrastination? It creeps in quietly, believe me, like water through a crack, soaking everything with doubt before we’ve even taken a step.
But here’s the relief – we don’t need to have it all figured out. We don’t need the full picture to begin. We just need to start with what we know. The next right thing. The next gentle yes. The next small no. The next breath, pause, or prayer. Five quiet minutes of faithfulness. Not because we’re fearless. Not because we’re experts. But because we’re willing.
Movement with God isn’t about mastery – it’s about trust. It’s about walking in step with the One who sees further than we do, and knowing that step by step is enough.
We live in a culture obsessed with big wins, dramatic turnarounds, and instant results. If it isn’t visible, viral, or victorious – we wonder if it’s worth anything at all. And that same pressure shows up in our walk with God. We think small means failure. We think quiet means unspiritual. We think rest or healing only counts if it’s impressive. But that’s never how the Kingdom of God has worked.
God has always worked through seeds. Tiny things, buried in ordinary soil. Unseen, slow, quiet. A mustard seed. A bit of yeast. A whisper. A widow’s coin. A lunchbox with five loaves and two fish. The kinds of things that don’t turn heads – but still change everything. These are the things God holds in His hands and says, “Watch what I can do with this.”
So when your next right thing feels small – don’t dismiss it. Don’t disqualify it just because it won’t impress anyone. The decision to close your laptop and go for a walk. The pause before reacting out of fear. The choice to put your phone down for ten minutes before bed. These aren’t weak steps – they’re steady ones. They’re the kind of choices that train the heart to move with grace, not pressure. Slowly. Honestly. One step at a time.
Small isn’t less worthy – it’s just less noisy. And in a world that prizes noise, maybe it’s time to remember that quiet faithfulness still counts. That slow beginnings still grow. That God sees every seed planted in trust, and He’s not in a rush. His pace is patient. His presence steady. His power doesn’t depend on our performance.
So if your next step feels tiny, let it be tiny. Let it be mustard-seed small. Let it be five minutes of stillness. One deep breath. One gentle no. One quiet prayer whispered in the middle of a busy day. God can do more with that than we think. In fact, He often chooses to.
This is the final glimpse of The Radical Recall to Rest before the book goes live.
It comes from the final section – PRACTICE – where the ideas of rest and rhythm begin to take shape in everyday life. Because rest isn’t a theory to understand; it’s a way to live – one small, faithful step at a time.
If something in these words has stirred something in you, I’d love to invite you to journey deeper. The Radical Recall to Rest is available for pre-order for 3 more days. Pre-orders close on Monday 3rd November, and every copy will be signed and posted personally.
It’s more than a book to me – it’s a conversation I’d love you to be part of. A reminder that change doesn’t have to be grand or instant – it can begin right where you are, with the next right thing.
Josh | A Curious Follower
A Curious Follower is all about this – slowing down, living with curiosity, and rediscovering wonder in ordinary life. If this post spoke to you, you can subscribe, share, or leave a comment to keep the conversation going.
Let’s keep noticing what can grow when we slow down, listen closely, and follow curiously.