Many Christians know the song “It is well with my soul,” for it has been translated into many languages. Some know the story behind it, others maybe not. Horatio Spafford, the author, was a businessman in Chicago. He and his wife had four daughters and one son. In a period of two years, they lost their business in a fire; their last-born son died as an infant; their four daughters drowned in the Atlantic when their ship collided with another while going to Europe with their mother. After being rescued from the accident alone, when his wife arrived in London, she telegraphed Spafford, saying, “Saved alone, what shall I do?” it was when he was on his way to reunite with his wife that he composed that song. His story looks like Job’s story. The foundations of their lives were being destroyed. What does the just do?

Though we are spiritual beings, we are also physical, and the things that make us who we are physical and tangible. These are our foundations. Our families, careers, businesses, and countries are pillars that sustain us. It is not wise to think those things are irrelevant because you are a Christian; that would be what the Bible calls being overly righteous and overwise (Ecclesiastes 7:16). Lives crumble when those things are removed, and it does not make you less spiritual when you are affected. Think about the Christians in Ukraine. Can they remain unaffected because they pray and believe in God? One day they were peaceful, flourishing in their country; the next day, they were bombarded by a powerful army of another country, which outwardly looked more powerful and more equipped than theirs. And it was not long ago that they were fighting the pandemic. Unfortunately, nothing is new; the world has always been in turmoil. Foundations are being destroyed every single day. What we thought was our protection and security are removed, families are torn apart, and systems are ruined. People who lived before us maybe did not have the pandemic and the likes but had their set of problems. As human beings, we are constantly wondering, what will happen next?

Here is where God asks the question to his children. What do you do when the foundations are destroyed? What do you do when the pillars are shaken, and the protective cover is removed? Notice that the Bible does not say if the foundations are being destroyed, but when. It is not a matter of if, it is certain, it will happen. Then what do you do when it happens? God’s question is very hard, and the answer to it is equally complex: the just shall live by faith (Habakkuk 2:4b). Walking and living by faith is hard. We are physical beings of flesh and blood; therefore, when the flesh sees such a word, it screams no! I can’t do it. I am wired for the touch, the smell and the feel; I can’t do it. However, you must live by faith if you want to please God. Hebrews 11:38 says, “Now the just shall live by faith; but if anyone draws back, my soul has no pleasure in him.” So when the foundations crumble around you, and you are left alone wondering what to do, silence the flesh, strengthen yourself in the Lord like David, bend down and pick up the pieces and keep going forward by faith, trusting God one step at a time. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your heart and mind through Christ Jesus (Philippians 4:7).

I remember many of my math lessons from high school. I majored in Math and Physics, so there were a lot of them; more than half of all our subjects were math and physics. Every day it was equations and more equations. The teacher would put an exercise on the blackboard and call a student to resolve it. Difficult integrals required many lines and steps until you reach the final answer. If the student missed one step in the process, no matter how hard they racked their brains, they would not find the answer. At some point, when the student would become stuck without any way of going forward, the teacher would then come and delete everything and say, “start over; this is flawed; it is leading nowhere.” So, we would start over and over again until the answer was found. Sometimes it was easy to find where the process deviated; other times, it was too hard that the best option was to start from scratch.

Life is a series of equations, some as difficult as integrals and others as simple as the first-degree equation. Sometimes life’s issues are simple to resolve; they are straightforward as a first-degree equation. But it is so hard to figure out the next step in other situations. No matter how hard you try, pray, or seek advice, there is no moving forward in the same conditions. You must start over. It may be a relationship already malfunctioning, but you are still desperately clinging to it. Perhaps it is a career that is not taking you anywhere or a business that has become stagnant. No matter the efforts, things are not working. You are unsure where things went wrong; it is a difficult equation. It is time to let God create something new. He will show you how to come out of the wilderness if you allow him. But the only way God can create something new for you is to let go of the past. Do not remember the former things, do not consider them. But can we really forget the past? No, because we are the result of our past. But we let the past stay in the past. It should not travel into our future.

Allow God to delete the blackboard of your life and write anew. Do not remember the past or consider it: do not give what happened in the past the authority and power to decide how you will live. Don’t let the past hurts, betrayals, failures, or successes hinder your progress. Past success can also be a hindrance. Keeping your eyes on your small victories of the past will make you inefficient in planning for future success because what made you succeed in the past might not work today. Things change, situations evolve, and you need to evolve along. God’s philosophy is always looking forward. He gives the word, accomplishes it, gives another one and accomplishes it. He said, “Everything I prophesied has come true, and now I will prophesy again. I will tell the future before it happens” (Isaiah 42:9 NLT). If your next step with God is continuing where you are now, it is well and good. But if not, you may need to start over with new values and a new mindset. In the technical language, it is called reset. It may be as simple as resetting one parameter or as difficult as executing a complete system overhaul. Whether you need to readjust your life a bit or start over, you will not be alone. God is standing with you all the way to the finish line.