Burn The Ships

I love her words, I do.  Each time I come across them I think....you go girl..I can relate to that!  So when an email came about her new book and offered an excerpt, I was really excited.  So I clicked it and made 15 different attempts yesterday to read it.  Not happening.  This evening when I found 15 minutes of quiet, I gave it another go...God's timing really.  He's really quite good with that.

This week has been a struggle to put it mildly.  It has really felt like all out war.  And the more I realize how different things are and how much has changed, the battle seems to increase.  And so as I sat down, elated that it is almost Friday, I prayed a little prayer of thanks.  This place is never where I expected to be, but it's not bad.  Sometimes I do get sad, but this is nothing like it used to be.  And there is a gratefulness that fills my heart.

So my prayers all week, confusion and questions...complete with throwing in the towel a good 5 or 6 times...all have found me here, sitting in the kitchen, preparing to finish this reading.  Her words...her words. They just took my breath...

"I think an appreciation for brave people and brave moments has been in me forever.  To this day, my favorite Stephen Curtis Chapman song is "Burn The Ships" from way back in the mid-90's.  It's a song about Spaniards sailing for Mexico in 1519, and upon arrival and in the midst of many hardships they wished they could go back.  Instead they decided to burn their ships.  Stay there forever.  And figure out what life would hold.
Brave."
Annie Downs
Excerpt from her book Let's All Be Brave

Burn the ships.  Can't go back, only ahead.  No matter what.  Even on the sad days, I can't go back.  Even on the days that feel like this will never end, I must choose to keep walking forward.  Ahead is the only direction that leads home.  Just like the minute I began running my race, I knew the only way to get to the finish would be found on the road ahead of me.  I didn't look back.  Thankful.