Moving Forward

“I will never be the same again, I can never return, I’ve closed the door. I will walk the path, I’ll run the race And I will never be the same again.” ~ lyrics by Geoff Bullock ~

Boy, when it comes to Jesus and walking the walk He gives us, I can relate to what Geoff Bullock is talking about. As I carefully look back I can see where I will never be the same again thanks to Jesus. I wish I could relate to the next part as well. The part that says I can never return. Like the Israelites coming out of Egypt I always seem to grumble about something wanting to return but never fully succeeding in my momentary flashes of insanity.

Indeed the best thing we can do is close the door on the past and walk the path the Lord has marked out for us. The path that moves us forward to a race we can win. Our problem is we tend to want to keep one foot in the door so it’s slightly cracked. Cracked enough to peak in and pull out the things that should be behind us or the things yet to come.

When I was first diagnosed with cancer that was the first trip my husband and I both took, backwards. “Oh we should have done this. Oh the doctor should have done. Did we miss something? What if? What if? What if?” One time as I tried to go back to think something out my husband stopped me in my tracks and said, “Don’t go there.”

That is the attitude we need to have, a type of “don’t go there” attitude. Not to deny, ignore, or escape what we need to address or deal with it. It’s an attitude of making up our minds that we are never going to return to the way we were. We are closing the door on the things that need to stay behind the door. Our outlook on life needs to take us forever forward not blindly backwards.

Years ago on my kids blogspot I wrote in what I call my “Picture Dees” a devotion about having a window seat. My grandkids just like my siblings and I did constantly are fighting over who gets to be by the window, the window that opens of course. Having four grandkids and only two windows that open in my car it just doesn’t happen for everyone.

I talked about how as much as we would like to get a window seat on what our life has ahead of us it just doesn’t happen that way. To illustrate my point I took a picture of one of the chemo chairs in the chemotherapy room at work. I talked about how those with cancer would like to have a window seat to see what was ahead of them but not everyone gets that pleasure.


Who would have thought the day I took the picture and prayed for each person that ever sat in those chairs that some day I would be the one sitting in that very chair getting my treatment.


As much as I would like to dwell on that and shed an extra tear like I am right now I need to keep myself moving forward. Slam the door, walk the path, and run the race in that particular order. If I do that I can rest assure in my spirit I will never be the same again because of what God is doing for me spiritually in my heart.


I may not be where I need to be spiritually yet but I know in my heart I’m not where I use to be. Never the same again, always moving forward, thanks to Jesus my walking partner, my coach, and my Friend.

© 2011 Karen J Gillett @ Pencil Marks and Recipes Publishing