Last night, before I fell asleep, I asked God a question I have been carrying for weeks now.
What’s next, Lord?
2026 is winding down faster than I expected, and I have been sitting with that particular kind of restlessness that shows up toward the end of a year; not anxious exactly, just searching. Am I still in the season You want me in? What is Your will for what comes after this one?
While I was praying, I felt led to Romans 12. I read it slowly. I sat with it. And if I am honest, I did not fully understand it. There was something there for me, something about God’s will and being transformed, but it stayed just out of reach that night, like a door I could see but had not yet found the key for.
I went to sleep still holding a passage I could not quite unlock.
A Sunday that started thirty minutes earlier
Our service moved up half an hour this week, so we woke earlier than usual, a little more rushed than usual, and made it in just in time. I carried that unopened verse with me the whole morning; through getting Adi ready, through the drive, through finding our seats. It sat in the back of my mind the way an unanswered text does, quietly present, waiting.
Ps Melvin Maglinas of New Life North Metro stood up to preach on understanding well; understanding the mercy of God, and understanding the discipline of renewing your mind every day. And he opened his Bible to Romans 12.
The same chapter I had been given the night before and could not yet unlock.
“And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God.” (Romans 12:2)
I sat there and thought, quietly, there it is. This is what I was given last night. Now I finally understand it.
Ps Melvin said something I will not forget; that so many of us keep asking God what His will is, when the answer has already been sitting in His word all along. Not a mystery to be decoded through circumstance, but a mind to be renewed daily through scripture. He reminded us that God has deposited something specific inside each of us; a measure of faith, a gift, a role in something much bigger than our own individual story. Not everyone is called to the same thing, but everyone has a part in the bigger picture.
I came into that service asking what season I am in. God had already handed me the passage the night before. I just needed someone to open it for me.
And then the rest of the day opened it up even further
Because here is what I am learning; the sermon was not the only answer. The whole day was.
After service, we picked up Adi from Sunday school and bumped into my late mother’s first cousin, who works a small retail booth at a mall near us. She could not step away, so we did not get to sit together, but I made sure to grab her an iced coffee before we left. A small thing. I admire her so much; she is not young anymore, and she still shows up, still works, still makes herself useful every single day. There is a quiet dignity in that I do not think I fully appreciated until I saw her standing at her post that morning.
The rest of the day unfolded exactly the way a good, ordinary Sunday should. We had lunch at a Greek place nearby, and it was so good we finished every bite; no small feat with a four-year-old at the table. I came home and fell asleep in our prayer room for what I told myself would be a short nap and turned into a full afternoon; I woke up at six, laughing at myself. We took Adi for a haircut because tomorrow is Buwan ng Wika at his school and he wanted, very seriously, to look presentable in his barong; watching him care about that, I was struck again by how quickly my little baby is becoming a little boy. We ended the night with a quick dinner and ice cream eaten, Adi’s Nutella ice cream was melting, nobody in a hurry to be anywhere else.
None of it was extraordinary. All of it, together, felt like exactly what I had been asking for.
What “next” actually looks like
I asked God what was next, and I think He answered me twice; once by leading me to a verse I could not yet understand, and once by opening that verse the next morning through a sermon I almost slept through waking up for. Then He kept answering, quietly, all afternoon; in a coffee for a woman I admire, in a meal we finished completely, in an unapologetic six-hour nap, in a boy proud of his barong, in ice cream with no urgency attached to it.
Maybe that is the whole answer for this season. Not a five-year plan. Not a new assignment. Just: stay renewed in His word, stay present in what is right in front of you, and trust that His will is not always a destination you have to search for. Sometimes it is simply the life you are already living, received with a grateful heart instead of a searching one.
“For as we have many members in one body, but all the members do not have the same function, so we, being many, are one body in Christ.” (Romans 12:4-5)
I am grateful tonight. For Allen and Adi. For a well-spent Sunday. For good food and better rest. For an answer that came before I even finished asking the question. 🌿
“Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind.” (Romans 12:2)
Have you ever asked God a question and felt Him answer it almost immediately? I would love to hear your story in the comments. 🤍
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