“Just do what’s right today,” my husband’s voice said into my ear. The cell phone pressed hard against me, as if the very pressure could somehow put his words into my being. But doing right that long-ago day, felt like a calling above my capabilities. Beyond all reasonable expectations. Utterly impossible.
2025’s Christmas wrapping paper is in the trash bin. Its cardboard boxes flattened and discarded. Presents, most of them at least, nearly forgotten or put to use, and leftovers are reheated yet another time.
It’s Christmas aftermath. The in-between, of years and seasons, spreads before us. We are in time’s awkward adolescence, connecting old and new. During this somewhat unproductive and foggy week, I revisit one year flown by with another on the cusp. In-betweens always fit me badly.
This in-between holds a melancholy and contemplative pause for me. I’ve heard it called, “the dead zone.”
My husband’s advice, “just do what’s right today,” came at a particularly difficult time for us, when right and wrong felt muddled by sleeplessness and anguish. Our systems were shocked by questions we had never asked before, accompanied with tsunami sized waves of grief.
“Right today,” navigated strained relationships and deep hurt, all in the middle of things-will-never-be-the-same-again circumstances.
And yet, while sinking sand swallowed our how-to-move-forward, “Just do what’s right today,” put one foot in front of the other.
As 2026 begins, surely for some who read this today, tomorrow feels leaden. Unknown. Filled with dread. And you may have wondered, how? How do I go forward?
What am I to do when a year in the future holds more burden than light, more questions than answers, and greater sadness than joy?
The Apostle Paul expresses some of this tension in the book of Philippians. It is a book full of thanksgiving and yet so very real in its expression of need.
Not that I have already obtained this or am already perfect, but I press on to make it my own, because Christ Jesus has made me his own. Brothers, I do not consider that I have made it my own. But one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus. Philippians 3:12-14 ESV
In a depressing prison cell with his future unknown, Paul wrote about pursuing Christ and continuing spiritual growth. Jesus used Paul to spread Christ’s gospel from the very place where people expected the message to stop. In that dark place full of physical and spiritual threat, Paul wrote, “I press on.”
To the church of Philippi, he acknowledged his need for growth, and his advice came from a very personal journey.
Forget what lies behind.
Strain forward to what’s ahead.
Press toward Jesus’s high call.
But two verses on the end, almost like an afterthought, held me as I read his familiar words. They arrested my attention and spoke to me in a new way.
Let those of us who are mature think this way, and if in anything you think otherwise, God will reveal that also to you. Only let us hold true to what we have attained. Philippians 3:15-16 ESV
Perhaps this week, with its foggy unproductiveness, more than any other week belongs to thanksgiving and praise, repentance and renewal. Maybe, this is revival-of-the-soul week.
Paul’s words bring me back to that phone conversation. When past brought sorrow, and future held darkness, when today felt heavier than I could lift, and loss stretched without end. Even then, Jesus asked me to press on and hold true.
These verses written from prison make so much sense for us in this 2025-2026 in-between. This space in which we so want to implement change, find a better me and reach ahead in new ways, is the exact place to refocus on the real prize and goal.Paul’s words from prison make so much sense in this 2025-2026 in-between. Share on X
We exchange the unknown for what we know. Even more importantly, we center on Who we know.
We look carefully at the call of following Christ with one foot in front of the other. Day by day. This thinking, Paul says, marks our spiritual maturity. It realigns “pressing on,” with one day at a time. Today. Then tomorrow.
Only let us hold true to what we have attained.
I squint my eyes into unknowns, as do you. However, Jesus knows each step of life’s journey. He meets us there. We move into another year knowing the Strength Giver and Helper is in step beside us. And so, day by day, we trust Him to enable us to just do what’s right today.
Gina Castell
Thank you. Happy New Year! ❤️ G