The next thing is the mirror of ‘what is.’ We need to wrestle with both. But it seems to me that a good portion of the church has missed seeing both because it could not envision the tomorrow that the coming kingdom contains. Asking What’s the next thing is a good way to engage the coming kingdom, and to prayerfully consider what God may be doing. Asking the question doesn’t ‘make it happen,’ rather, it puts you and I in a position to see things where we were previously blind.
This is the essence of the dreaming heart. This is the essence of the divine image that God has placed upon humanity—the ability to live in ‘what is’ and lay hold of ‘what isn’t’ or, better still, ‘what could be.’