When we are reading a book, we cannot wait to turn the page because it means we are getting closer to seeing how the book ends. When we are reading a book, we even will lick our finger and pull the top of the page down in anticipation of turning the page. If it’s a good book, we are fully engaged in the events and story line of the book.

Why can’t we seem to turn the pages in our life? We are either afraid, ashamed, or hesitant to turn a page. By turning a page, it means leaving the old behind and pressing toward the new. Maybe it is worth reading Philippians 3:13-14 again.

In life, we sometimes want to stay on the same page (fear, anxiety, intimidation, low self-esteem) because turning the page means leaving it behind. A pastor I once knew gave someone the best advice I have ever heard. He was counseling a person that had gone through a bad breakup several years earlier. After the crying and the telling of the story, (the same crying and the same story they been had telling everyone who would listen for several years) he looked at the person and said “ok, lets together pick a date when you will no longer let the past breakup control your life. He said, do you want to set a date for today, next week, next month or next year? How long do you want to let your pass dictate your future?”

 The person looks at the pastor and says that was the most insensitive thing I have ever been told. They went away upset and a few days later, called the pastor and thanked him for way he shocked them and forced them to choose to stop letting the breakup control, them. That person said, “I choose today.’”  The memory was always there but the control over their emotions and future had been broken.

If you don’t turn the page, you will never really find out what the rest of the book (your life) was meant to be. You will die with the music still in you because you never turned the page.

There are moments, memories and events that will never leave you, but we can choose to turn the page and not let them control what God has planned for us. He never pushes his plan on us; he always waits for us to choose to follow his path.

Cody Johnson has a country song that says it best – If you got a chance, take it, take it while you got a chance. If you have a dream, chase it, cause a dream won’t chase you back’ KT.