Lyrics Page
The Very Next Thing
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Sep 26, 2026 updated
The Very Next Thing album
Verified editorial review
Song Meaning
Casting Crowns opens by naming a specific distraction rather than a vague one — "I spend all my time dreaming what the future's gonna bring... while I'm tripping over today." The complaint isn't ambition itself, it's ambition that skips past whatever's actually in front of a person right now.
The chorus resets the scale from grand plans to immediate ones: "the very next words of love to be spoken, to the very next heart that's shattered and broken." Faithfulness, in this song, is measured in the next conversation rather than in a five-year plan.
James' warning that life is a mist, here today and gone tomorrow, cuts against the song's opening habit of living in some imagined future. Paul's instruction to make the most of the time, and Jesus' own description of caring for "the least of these" as caring for him directly, both back up the chorus's insistence on smallness — "eyes wide open, I see you working... step by step I'm running to meet you in the next thing."
Lyrics Verified by Editorial Team
I spend all my time
Dreaming what the future's gonna bring
When all of this time
There's a world passing by
Right in front of me
Set my sights on tomorrow
While I'm tripping over today
Who says big things
Are somewhere off in the distance
I don't want to look back
Just to see all the times that I missed it
I want to be here and now
Starting right here, right now
With the very next words of love to be spoken
To the very next heart that's shattered and broken
To the very next way you're gonna use me
Show me the next thing
I'll do the next thing
Let my very next breath
Breathe out a song of praise to you
With my very next step
Be on a road that was planned by you
Lord, wherever you're leading me
That's where I want to be
With the very next words of love to be spoken
To the very next heart that's shattered and broken
To the very next way you're gonna use me
Show me the next thing
I'll do the next thing
Eyes wide open I see you working
All around me you're on the move
Step by step I'm running to meet you
In the next thing, in the next thing
Eyes wide open I see you working
All around me you're on the move
Step by step I'm running to meet you
In the next thing
With the very next words of love to be spoken
To the very next heart that's shattered and broken
To the very next way you're gonna use me
Show me the next thing
Eyes wide open I see you working
All around me you're on the move (I'll do the next thing)
Step by step I'm running to meet you
In the next thing, in the next thing
Eyes wide open I see you working
All around me you're on the move (I'll do the next thing)
Step by step I'm running to meet you
In the next thing, in the next thing
Eyes wide open I see you working
All around me you're on the move
Step by step I'm running to meet you
In the next thing, in the next thing