I'm Emily P. Freeman and welcome to The Next Right Thing. You're listening to episode 383.

This is a podcast about making decisions, but also about making a life. If you struggle with

decision fatigue, chronic hesitation, or if you just need a few minutes away from the constant

stream of information and the sometimes delightful but distracting hum of entertainment,

you're in the right place for discerning your next right thing. I'm an author, a spiritual

director, and an occasional workshop leader. I live in North Carolina with my family, and I've

helped thousands of spiritually thoughtful people overcome decision fatigue so that they can discern

their next right thing in faith work in life.

What does it mean to trust the process? Does the process know that we're trusting it? What

qualifies as a process that is worth trusting? And how can we discern the difference between

when it's time to trust the process and when we need to disrupt it.

Let's get into it together. Listen in.

I wonder if you, like me, have a complicated relationship with the phrase, trust the process.

Trust people. It depends. Trust God, mostly. Trust myself. I am learning. Thank you very much.

But to say trust the process, at least at first glance, can feel like a trite way to comfort myself

when things are difficult or seem to be going in a way other than the way I thought or hoped

that they would go. It may offer short-term relief, but it doesn't give long-term guarantees.

Telling myself to trust the process can sometimes feel like a way to avoid facing reality.

Is trust the process just a glib saying that sounds good on Instagram but requires

either further exploration or ignoring it altogether?

Maybe you're in the midst of trying to discern if you're in a season where you need to trust it

or if it's time to move away from it in another direction. So just to back up a little bit,

...