You Are No Longer Bound By Yesterday

Each day you rise is a reminder of one thing—life continues. Despite your best efforts to cling to the past, despite the pain that may have pushed you to your knees just hours before, despite the sun setting, it will soon rise. And time will continue, bringing you forward into a new morning.

I cannot fathom your yesterday. Maybe it was a beautiful day, one you long to hold onto for as long as you can. Maybe it was one of those days you’re still wrestling with, not sure how to come to terms with a turn of events. Maybe it was a day of tiredness simply dragging you down. Or maybe it was one of the most debilitating days, your brokenness so heavy you were left without breath.

On the difficult days, seeking the light seems like an impossible task. You’re doing everything in your power to keep your head above water, to focus on the sky above you, to inhale, exhale. On those days, you don’t want to imagine existing, let alone moving forward. You’re surrounded by people, images, thoughts, feelings, nature—and yet the beauty feels impossible to find.

You are not alone in this emotion. Though your world feels like it’s crashing in, there are others who are standing beside you in an equal state of unrest. There are people in your realm, on the other side of the country, across the world who are also drowning, kicking their legs, flailing their arms, reaching for anything to pull them from the water.

You are not alone. Remember this when you are in deep, when you feel as if you’re fighting by yourself, when nothing makes sense. Remember that slowly time will pass, but in the meantime, each breath, each step, each blink is enough.

You are going to have hard days. This you were promised. You were promised love, joy, a God who would stand beside you, peace, but also imperfection and unrest. Bad times were inevitable. Loss was destined to happen. Life was meant to one day end. But in the meantime, you keep fighting.

And each day you begin again you are already winning.

I do not know what the last twenty-four hours have held for you. Maybe contentment. Maybe confusion. Maybe you watched someone you love take their last breath, or found out a lover was leaving you. Maybe everything you believed in shattered before your eyes, or you received an answer you didn’t want to hear. I don’t know.

But what I do know, is that yesterday is gone.

And maybe you can’t forget what happened, maybe you can’t simply let it go, maybe what’s occurred is permanent and may haunt you for a while. But maybe you can remember it is in the past now.

Maybe you can release the grip yesterday has on your soul and remind yourself that though it might not leave you right away, you are not bound by it.

You will be okay again. You will rise to your feet, you will catch your breath, you will welcome in new joy and a new song. You will find lungs that inhale beauty rather than fear. You will remember that your mistakes do not define you. You will discover that your legs can still carry you, no matter how weak they once were.

You will learn who you are without the one who held your heart, learn who you can be in the aftermath of lost love. You will push, kick, scream, cry, lose yourself and regain a new sense of strength. You will survive. And this will take time, but it is beautiful. Healing is beautiful.

So please don’t give up on yourself. Don’t let your days bleed together in an endless stream of unworthiness. You are worthy—of a new start, of hope, of a freedom from your yesterday.

Do not let yourself be bound by what was.

Because you are here today, breathing and becoming. You are here, today, releasing the past. You are here, today, finding new reasons to live. You are here, today, and that is enough.