Do the Next Right Thing

WARNING: Frozen II Spoiler Alert!

Watch "The Next Right Thing" sung by Kristen Bell with lyrics in the video below or simply read the full lyrics here.

Last night my mom and I finally made it to go see Frozen II. A major theme of the movie was, “Do the next right thing.” At one point, Anna is in crisis as she believes she has just lost her sister, Elsa, and good friend and lovable snowman, Olaf. She also realizes she must correct a mistake of the past that in turn will destroy her home, Arendelle.  Upon realizing these things, Anna (sung by Kristen Bell) launches into this meaningful solo resolving to do the next right thing. The next thing I knew, there I was, sitting in the theater as an adult woman watching a Disney movie, getting choked up at the words of a song because it was perfectly describing what I felt facing my own crisis in the past year.

This song had insightful lines in it such as, “I've seen dark before but not like this. This is cold. This is empty. This is numb. The life I knew is over,” or “This grief has a gravity, it pulls me down,” and “The only star that guided me was you. How to rise from the floor when it's not you I'm rising for?” They all reminded me of my early stages of coping and grief and the hopelessness I’d felt. When my husband relapsed, I chose to leave our home, quit my jobs, scrap our cars, and move back in with my parents. I was experiencing darkness like nothing I’d ever experienced before and for a while it felt like my life was ruined. I was shell-shocked in those first few weeks. I was experiencing grief with a heaviness, a gravity, like nothing I’d ever felt. I’d planned my life around having my husband there with me and now I wasn’t even sure we had a future together so I had no idea how to even begin to rebuild. While I’m sure many spouses of addicts have felt feelings similar to these, I believe these same feelings are relatable to anyone who goes through life changing crisis. This song not only describes the feelings felt during a crisis, but also gives insight on surviving one.

“You are lost, hope is gone. But you must go on and do the next right thing." Resolving to do the next right thing during a crisis is so important because everything is so overwhelming during great loss or change. Your mind is swirling, mentally replaying any traumatic events, hurtful words, or actions. You’re likely thinking of what you might have done or said differently while also imagining worst case scenarios for how this will change or ruin the rest of your life. In the midst of all that mental chaos, you’re also likely being forced to make major decisions. Those feelings of loss and hopelessness don’t leave right away but you can make the resolve to simply do the next right thing in the midst of them.

“I won't look too far ahead. It's too much for me to take. But break it down to this next breath, this next step. This next choice is one that I can make.” Surviving a crisis with any sort of sanity or peace of mind requires taking things in chunks. There’s a lot that you can’t control in a crisis. You can’t control what has already happened and you will never be able to control the future by worrying about it. So focus on the small things you can control in the here and now. Focus on just taking the next logical step, making the next choice that has to be made, and doing the next right thing. And if you’re unsure what the “right” thing is, don’t be ashamed to ask for guidance or advice. Slowly but surely, just continuing to do the next right thing will help calm the chaos.

Once the immediate crisis is dealt with, doing the next right thing often means doing whatever you need to do to take care of yourself. Sometimes doing the next right thing means leaving the house you’ve been moping in for days and asking a friend to do something fun with you. Sometimes it means treating yourself. Sometimes it means getting your finances in order or making a plan to. Sometimes it means getting to a therapist. Sometimes it means dragging yourself to that support group. Sometimes it means taking the time to take a long, hard reflective look at your life and being willing to make some hard but necessary changes. And I can guarantee doing the next right thing will always mean opening your Bible and praying more often.

“So I'll walk through this night, stumbling blindly toward the light.” Disney producers are often accidental theologians. While they more than likely don’t know the light of which they speak, Jesus made it clear that he is the light of the world. “Stumbling blindly toward the light” is a pretty accurate description of this faith journey I’ve been on the past nine months. I’ve known the whole time that Jesus was the light and my only source of hope. But simply knowing that didn’t make the darkest days suddenly turn bright. There have been bright moments with darker moments following right behind them. Following the light, Jesus, is a process even in crisis. But in all the hopelessness, I had nothing else to hold onto but the assurance that Jesus is the light! So I stumbled blindly towards him! And though my life still felt and sometimes still feels dark and confusing, the light of the world never goes out! Jesus is faithful to guide me to himself. And the more fervently I pursue the light, the more I find that I am also able to more clearly see myself.

“And with the dawn, what comes then? When it's clear that everything will never be the same again? Then I'll make the choice to hear that voice and do the next right thing.” This song doesn’t have a happy ending because something good happens. It doesn’t get better because at that point Anna finds out that Elsa and Olaf didn’t actually die. It doesn’t get better because Kristoff comes in and comforts her and sweeps her off her feet. It doesn’t get better because she finds a different way to solve the problem that doesn’t involve putting her home in danger. But it does end on a hopeful note because Anna resolves to do the next right thing.

As the song states, doing the next right thing is a choice. It’s much easier to give up and fall into despair. But as you make the brave choice to keep doing the next right thing, I promise that things will start to improve. I can promise you that with confidence, because even if your crisis never gets better, you’ll soon find that you have.

So when we don’t know what tomorrow holds, when our future, or even our tomorrow, is masked in the unknown, when our lives are insecure, scary, and dismal, doing the next right thing is the best thing you can do. So…

“Take a step, step again. It is all that I can to do the next right thing.”