When One Chapter Ends Before You Know What Comes Next

Faith doesn’t require me to know the ending. It asks me to know the One I am walking with.

I need that reminder because there have been times when my life changed long before I was ready for it to change.

I like knowing where I’m going. I like being able to make a plan and imagine what comes next. An ending feels much easier when I can already see the beginning waiting on the other side.

But some seasons don’t happen that way.

Sometimes one chapter closes while the next page still looks completely blank.

I’ve lived through one of those seasons. In some ways, I’m still living through it.

And I’ve learned that a new chapter doesn’t necessarily mean the struggle that came before it has disappeared.

Sometimes healing and purpose exist on the same page.

Scripture Focus

Isaiah 43:19

“See, I am doing a new thing!”

These words were originally spoken into a much bigger story of God’s promised restoration. I don’t read them as a guarantee that every difficult ending in my life will immediately lead to something better. I read them as a reminder that what I can see today is not the limit of what God can do.

When I cannot see the next chapter, I can still trust the God who is already there.

Trusting God When Life Doesn’t Go as Planned

Leaving work was not part of the future I had imagined for myself.

For years, working was simply part of my life. I had expectations about what the years ahead would look like, and then life changed.

When I had to step away from work, I didn’t see some exciting new beginning waiting for me.

Mostly, I saw what I was losing.

I hadn’t realized how much of my identity was connected to what I could do until I couldn’t live life the same way anymore.

I wondered what my days would look like. I wondered whether I would ever feel like myself again. I wanted to know when this chapter would be over so I could get back to the life I recognized.

But there wasn’t a clear dividing line between the difficult chapter and the new one.

There still isn’t.

I haven’t healed enough to return to work. There are still limitations I wish weren’t part of my life.

But something else is also true.

My life didn’t stop when that part of it changed.

What Does Isaiah 43:18–19 Mean?

Isaiah 43 means more to me when I remember who these words were first spoken to.

It’s easy to turn that verse into a promise that whenever something difficult ends, God has something better waiting around the corner.

That’s not what I believe this passage promises.

Isaiah was speaking hope to God’s people in the context of their need for deliverance and restoration. God reminded them of His faithfulness and pointed them toward what He would do.

For me, that means I need to be careful about turning these words into a guarantee about my own circumstances.

Not every loss is followed by something I would call better.

Not every prayer is answered the way I hope.

Not every painful experience eventually makes sense.

And Scripture does not ask me to pretend otherwise.

My hope isn’t that every ending guarantees a better earthly outcome.

My hope is that no ending places me beyond the presence, faithfulness, or redemptive work of God.

That is a promise I can hold onto when I don’t know what comes next.

Looking Back at What I Couldn’t See Then

Looking back, I can see things I couldn’t see when I first stepped away from work.

I couldn’t see the shape my days would eventually take.

I couldn’t see how precious time with my grandchildren would become. There are ordinary moments with them now that mean more to me than I could have imagined. Conversations. Laughter. Difficult days too. Simply having the opportunity to be Grammy and be present in their lives has become part of this chapter.

I couldn’t see myself becoming a children’s author.

I couldn’t imagine meeting a little black kitten named Raven and eventually turning her adventures into The Misadventures of Raven. I certainly couldn’t see myself publishing those stories and continuing to create more of them.

And I couldn’t see Healing Journey with Christ.

I couldn’t imagine sitting down to write devotionals, creating Scripture resources, or sharing parts of my own journey in the hope that someone sitting in their own difficult season might feel a little less alone.

None of these things mean everything difficult happened so that I could become an author, spend more time with my grandchildren, or begin a ministry.

I don’t believe that.

And they don’t mean I’m completely healed.

I’m not.

There are things I can do today that I couldn’t imagine then, and there are still things I cannot do.

There is joy alongside limitation.

There is purpose alongside healing that is still happening.

That has changed the way I think about new beginnings.

You Don’t Have to Be Completely Healed to Have Purpose

For a long time, I think I imagined healing would have a finish line.

There would be a before and an after.

One day I would finally reach the other side, look backward, and understand exactly what God had been doing.

Life hasn’t worked that way.

Healing has been much less tidy.

There are good days and difficult ones. There are things I have learned to accept and other things I still struggle with. There are prayers that have been answered and prayers I am still carrying.

Yet life continues to happen right here.

There are afternoons with my grandchildren.

There are Raven stories waiting to be written.

There are devotionals taking shape at home.

There are prayers, ideas, family moments, and ordinary days that would have been impossible for me to see when I was focused on everything I could no longer do.

I used to think I needed to get back to my old life.

Now I’m learning to pay attention to the life I’m actually living.

This is not the life I expected. But it is still a life being lived with God.

Why Is It So Hard to Trust God During Change?

Part of what makes change difficult for me is wanting certainty.

I want to know that if something ends, something else will take its place.

I want to know that if I release something, I’ll be okay.

I want God to show me enough of the future that I can stop worrying about it.

But faith doesn’t give me a map of everything that’s coming.

Jesus gives me Himself.

I can have unanswered questions and still trust Him.

I can grieve something I lost without believing my story ended with it.

I can be grateful for what exists in my life today while still acknowledging what is difficult.

I can experience joy without pretending everything is fixed.

And I can still be healing while living a meaningful life.

Trust doesn’t mean I know what’s coming. It means I know who I’m walking with.

When You’re Between Chapters Too

Maybe your life doesn’t look the way you thought it would either.

Perhaps you thought you would still be working. Maybe retirement arrived differently than you imagined. Your family has changed. A relationship ended. Your children grew up. Your abilities or circumstances changed. A dream you carried never happened.

Or maybe nothing dramatic has happened at all. You simply look at your life and wonder, How did I get here, and what comes next?

You don’t have to rush to make the experience meaningful.

You don’t have to call something good when it hurts.

You don’t have to pretend you’ve moved on when you’re still grieving.

And you don’t have to wait until everything is healed before believing your life still matters.

Bring the life you have today to Christ.

Not the life you thought you would have.

Not the life you hope you’ll have six months from now.

This one.

When I don’t know what comes next, I’m learning to ask:

Jesus, what does faithfulness look like today?

That question is much smaller than asking Him to explain my entire future.

And sometimes smaller is exactly what I need.

Trusting God One Page at a Time

There are still things in my life I don’t understand.

There are still prayers without the answers I hoped for.

There are still places where I would love for God to show me exactly what comes next.

But looking backward has taught me something about looking forward.

I couldn’t see my grandchildren becoming such an important part of my days.

I couldn’t see Raven.

I couldn’t see Healing Journey with Christ.

I couldn’t see much beyond what I was losing.

I can see those things now.

So when another page looks blank, I don’t need to fill it myself simply because uncertainty makes me uncomfortable.

I can pray.

I can return to Scripture.

I can listen.

I can do what is possible today.

And when I don’t know what the next step is, I can stay close to Christ while I wait.

The promise isn’t that I know what’s on the next page. The promise is that I don’t turn the page alone.

Questions for Journaling and Reflection

1. Is there a chapter of my life I’m still grieving because it ended differently than I expected?
2. Have I been waiting to feel completely healed, capable or certain before allowing myself to live fully in the present?
3. What exists in my life today that I couldn’t have imagined during an earlier difficult season?
4. Have I connected my worth to what I can accomplish rather than who I am in Christ?
5. What might faithfulness look like today if I stopped demanding answers about tomorrow?

A Prayer for When You Don’t Know What Comes Next

Jesus,

I don’t know what comes next.

There are parts of my life I wish were different and places where healing still feels unfinished.

Sometimes I look backward and miss what I once had. Sometimes I look forward and wish You would show me exactly where all of this is going.

Help me live with You here.

Thank You for the people, opportunities and ordinary moments I might have missed while looking for something bigger.

Help me recognize that my worth is not measured by how much I can accomplish.

When I grieve what has changed, meet me there.

When I am grateful for what has grown in its place, meet me there too.

Keep me grounded in Your Word, close to Christ, and open to the life that is happening today.

I don’t need to see the whole chapter.

Give me grace for this page.

Amen.

A Free Resource for This Season

The Learning to Trust devotional card collection in the Healing Journey with Christ Resource Library is a natural companion to today’s devotional.

When my mind starts trying to solve everything that hasn’t happened yet, returning to Scripture helps bring me back to what is true today.

Visit the Free Resource Library →