Sometimes things are going to happen in your life that will completely turn your world upside down. During these times it can be very easy to sink to very low places and convince yourself that there is no getting up from here.

In that mindset, you can see the steps that you have to take to improve your situation, and yet you can easily convince yourself that you are powerless to take that step.  In that place it can be very easy to succumb to feelings (which often lead us astray).

No matter how long you stay in the valley (and sometimes it can be for quite a while), at one point or another you are going to have to make the choice to start making the long walk out. The journey ahead can often look really long, and sometimes impossible. For myself, even knowing I have Jesus with me, and knowing the truth about what steps I need to take to get out of this valley, my human spirit can still contest this and leave me in a place where I am still fumbling. At one point or other you have to commit to taking that first step, and after that you take another step.

Even after you start walking forward again, don't be surprised if you sometimes fall back a couple of steps and sit there for a bit to contemplate what is going on. What matters is that you find the strength to once again start walking ahead. One step at a time, one foot in front of the other. Start making the choice to not succumb to the feelings that are paralyzing you. One day at a time, one choice at a time, eventually you will see the horizon again and recommence stepping forward into your future!

Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already been made perfect, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me.  Brothers, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it.  But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus

Philippians 3:12-14