Dare to Burn the Ships

Hi Guys! It has been a WHILE and I am so happy to be back! As some of y'all know, I am currently in physical therapy school, and I just finished my first semester, so PRAISE GOD that I survived and that I am headed back for another round of fun in January! However, there's something that God has laid on my heart and I figured it was the best place to start for my triumphant return back! So get ready, because we are about to talk about some fun stuff today (and yes, it is about the For KING & COUNTRY song)!

So, after an amazing but HARD semester of PT school, it was honestly really weird for me to come home and not have much of anything to do. I went from studying and doing some sort of assignment every day for hours on end, to NOTHING. And in that nothing, the Lord revealed to me that there were some things that I needed to address in order to grow and become the person that the Lord meant for me to be. In my life, there a lot of times when I have burned myself because I wouldn't let a person/relationship go, whether that was a friend or something else. Even after a romantic relationship went sour (and no matter who decided to cut it off), I was always the person that tried to stick around and be friends because I wanted to still keep that person in my life in whatever capacity that I could. And while that is not a negative thing by any means, it left me wide open for a lot of hurt. For example, one of my oldest and closest friends (my best friend of 8 years to be exact) cut me off over the original quarantine without saying a word. And they weren't the only one. After that, it seemed like everyone was buying their ticket and flying out of my life as fast as possible.

What's funny, however, is I wasn't really upset or hurt by these people leaving my life, I was more upset at the AMOUNT of people leaving my life all at once. It was such an odd feeling, and for a time there it made me believe that I was hard to love or that I somehow deserved it. However, what I had to learn is that people leaving or being removed from your life is not always a negative thing, even though it may feel like it (especially if you're a people-pleaser like me). Those people that have decided to remove themselves from your life (or that God has removed from your life, more truthfully) are people that served their purpose and now cannot go with you where you are going. They were there for you when you needed them, but now they cannot service you in the next chapter of life that God has planned for you. What that means, is that you have to be willing to let go and leave the past IN THE PAST.

That doesn't just apply to people and relationships either. Many times we get caught up in situations that happened in our past and we drag those past events and relationships on our backs like this huge backpack, until it gets to the point that we can hardly carry it anymore... and the whole time we keep moving slower and slower until the backpack gets too heavy and we stop because we can no longer move forward. What we have to realize is that holding onto our past does NOT service us and the more we try to hang on, the less we are able to move forward and realize our potential. It's just like hauling that backpack until you can't haul it anymore... and what's funnier is that carrying around such a heavy weight all the time HURTS. Just like it hurts carrying around all these "failed" relationships and past mistakes.

What's even more interesting is the fact that we are called to do the same things as Christians. We are new beings in Christ Jesus. The old is to be left behind and the new is supposed to take its place. All of our sins and mistakes were taken care of when Jesus went on the cross, died, and was raised the third day. Just like Galatians 2:20-22 says, " I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I now live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. I do not set aside the grace of God, for if righteousness could be gained through the law, Christ died for nothing!” So all of the old mistakes that play through our minds over and over were taken care of a LONG time ago. We just have to be willing to take our gaze and move it from WITHIN to ABOVE, so that the Lord may have them and so that we can continue to improve and be made new by the Lord.

He wants you reach your potential and get everything that He has set aside for you, but you have to be willing to leave the past (both mistakes and relationships) where it belongs... in the same place He decided to leave it. As Isaiah 43:18-19 says, “Forget the former things; do not dwell on the past. See, I am doing a new thing! Now it springs up; do you not perceive it? I am making a way in the wilderness and streams in the wasteland." So, what does this mean? It means DARE TO BURN THE SHIPS. Just like conquistadors did in the 1500's just so their men would have no where to go but forward and for the same reasons you aren't supposed to look backwards when running a race, we have to be willing to burn our own personal ships and cut ties with the past hurts and past relationships that could not come with us on the journey that we are currently on. The Lord forgives us for a reason. Be willing to forgive yourself and promise to never be that same person again. The Lord removes people from our lives for a reason. Do not try to bring another person through a door that was only meant for one... Thank them for everything they did, forgive them for leaving, and keep moving forward, because BETTER THINGS ARE COMING FOR YOU.

The last thing I'm going to leave you with is my favorite quote/life motto from Walt Disney. I saw it during the end credits of "Meet the Robinsons" and I have lived by it ever since. So face your past. Let go of the past relationships and hurts that don't service you. Light the match. Burn the ships. And don't you dare look back.