Mothers Group Reflection #7: Moving On


I was unpacking my studio this week and listening to music on my phone when I found an old song I’d forgotten about. It is called “Tell Your Heart to Beat Again” by Danny Gokey (see link below). I’ve heard this song many times and it has always been an encouragement to me when I’m struggling to let go and to move forward in life. Until today, though, I had never heard the story behind it. In this particular video, Danny Gokey explains what prompted him to write the song. I encourage you to listen to it in its entirety because its such a great story, but the gist is that a woman was going through heart surgery and the medical staff could not get her heart to start beating again. The doctor did something very unusual and knelt down next to the patient and told her that her heart had been repaired, the surgery was successful, but she needed to tell her heart to beat again. Danny said that she had to agree with the statement that her heart was healed and choose to move on, to let it beat again. And so she did.

I have been thinking about my own life. I have been through some very difficult things, and it is sometimes hard to go back to the places where I experienced these hurts and to look at them from a fresh perspective. While I still have some unhealed wounds, many of them have healed and sometimes, I’m just not sure if it’s safe to trust again. Either the people or situations responsible for the original hurts, or the new people and situations that come into my life that remind me of those things. I find myself doubting God’s goodness or His gentle nudge to let in the new. Many times lately, I find myself in these situations where God is calling me to step forward in faith and the thing is, I know He will come through. Maybe not in the way I had originally hoped for, but I know He is good and He’s got this.

With the holidays upon us, this song seems especially relevant. Some of us have come to associate the holidays with pain from the past, and yet, the story isn’t over yet. Each moment is a fresh start, a brand new opportunity to do something new or see things in a different light, to be thankful for all the blessings of the present moment. Sometimes, just like that woman in surgery, we just have to “tell [our] heart to beat again.”


Thoughts for further reflection:
Is there a situation or a relationship within your own life that causes you to hesitate to move forward? What would it take for you to be able to do that? Are there any areas in your life where you doubt God’s ability to help you?

Memory Verse for the Week:
“I am about to do a new thing; now it springs forth, do you not perceive it?
I will make a way in the wilderness and rivers in the desert.” - Isaiah 43:19 NRSVCE

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