Tales from the Next Step Community
Volume 4
When your life (and your faith) feel kind of stuck, it’s easy to push your ideas about fulfillment or even happiness off to some distant future. But already now, there is real joy in the journey. Already now, Jesus is with you in the midst of the struggle, the challenge, and the mess. You don’t have to wait to receive the Father’s love or the Spirit’s presence. Today is where the gift is.
The Next Step Community is a place where real people actively look for what Jesus is doing in their ordinary lives. You won’t find simple, silver-bullet answers from these bloggers. But you will find an attitude of expectation, a playful wondering if Jesus might be up to something in spite of the dark moments, days, weeks, or months. There is future hope. And there is real, present joy.
The articles in this anthology, originally published on our blog between September 2022 and May 2024, continue to tell the “Tales from the Next Step Community” we began with Jesus at the Center of My Messy Life (2020), Be Still and Notice (2021), and Take My Moments and My Days (2022).
We invite you into our lives and our struggles, our ups and our downs, for one reason: so we can see Jesus better, together.
Real Help from Ordinary People
Our bloggers come from all different walks of life, different ages and stages, but they share at least one thing: they believe Jesus is still at work. They don’t have all the answers. They won’t try to impress you. These authors are willing to share experiences of growth and peace, but also failure and pain, because they can see the gift even then.
The title of Volume 4, Today Is Where The Gift Is, comes from a blog by Jamie Wiechman. Jamie doesn’t think she is perfect or her life is perfect. Jamie knows the journey is far from done. And still, for a moment, just for today, it is a relief to know that Jesus isn’t impatiently rolling his eyes, waiting for you to get better so he can love you more.
Already today, Jesus loves you and is content to be with you where you are, wherever you are in the process.
That comfort and that peace covers all of the blogs in this anthology. We’re still just running experiments and trying to figure things out. By no means do we think we have arrived. But we do trust that Jesus is with us on the way, that Jesus delights to be with us on the way. We invite you to walk a ways with us, as well.
No matter what you are feeling, Jesus is with you. That changes everything.
Katie Helmreich
Your future is already reaching back into your present. In Jesus, your eternal life starts now.
Justin Rossow
Themes for Following
These 64 articles, written by 13 different authors, encourage you to see Jesus active in your ordinary life, today.
Section 1, Life in Community, embraces the Next Step value that we follow Jesus better when we follow him together. From everyday conversations with kids to the challenges of processing tragedy, our communal faith requires community.
Section 2, Faith Formation, helps you notice how the Spirit is shaping and molding your faith, even in challenge or difficulty. Your experience can feel like a roller coaster at times. But today you already have resurrection life at work in your ordinary experience.
“The most wonderful time of the year” can also be the most stressful, the most exhausting, the most challenging and infuriating. Section 3, Christmas Discipleship, looks for Jesus present with us, even in the the busyness and business the of a consumer culture.
Through the Valley (Section 4) is an honest and recognizable expression of difficulty and confusion and doubt in the life of those who follow Jesus. No matter how bleak today appears, you have a God who walks through the valley with you. You have a Savior who has been there before. You have a Comforter who will never leave you nor forsake you. Your life is caught up in a story bigger than your struggle. You belong to One who knows suffering, yet conquered even death.
Section 5 (Faith Experiments) and Section 6 (Dependance on Jesus) continue to provide real insight and real help for the adventure of following Jesus. The six sections of this anthology make a great six-week small group Bible; or you could use them as your own personal excursion of discovery as you take a small next step on your journey of faith.
Authors who Encourage and Inspire
13 different authors and contributors took over a year to create the 64 articles included in this anthology of next step discipleship. Their ages span 50 years and they hail from around the country and across the globe.
Like you, our Next Step Community bloggers are trying to live out dependence on Jesus moment to moment, day to day. Their stories are an invitation to you to join the adventure—to try, and fail, and get up and try again—to live under an umbrella of grace that makes even your daily grind a place you can expect Jesus to show up. The Jesus to whom we dedicate our lives first dedicated himself to us: that eternal confidence covers your eternal future. But it is also a promise and a reality today.
Today Is Where The Gift Is takes a relatable, engaging, and inspiring look at the ordinary joys and challenges of following Jesus. Read it as a devotion, gift it to a friend, or explore it with your small group: this collection will help you delight in taking a small step following Jesus.
Order a copy or check out the Table of Contents on Amazon.com.
Discover more from the Next Step Community at community.findmynextstep.org.
With contributions from
Alli Bauck
Kristeen A. Bruun
Sam Fink
Conrad Gempf
Katie Helmreich
Rachel Hinz
Kim Longden
Raelyn Pracht
Deanna Rossow
Justin Rossow
Liz Rossow
Jamie Wiechman
Adam Zachary
