How to Let God Rewrite Your “Never Again”
The retreat leader asked us to consider, “What might God be asking you to release, to let go of?” I shifted in my seat, quietly wondering, “But what if I’m actually afraid of what God is asking me to pick up?” Sometimes the very thing we once laid down in exhaustion is what God gently invites us to hold again.
When God Nudges You Toward a “Never Again”
Not long ago, a friend asked if I could step in temporarily to teach a few classes. The problem? Just two years earlier, I had quit teaching and declared, never again. I had been frayed, burned out, overwhelmed by grading, pressured to pursue more education, and worn down by the stress I carried home each night. The thought of returning made my stomach knot.
But as I prayed about my friend’s request, I sensed God nudging me toward yes. That yes terrified me. I feared stepping back into the same exhaustion I had left. Yet the tug persisted.
Returning to the classroom that fall, I felt like this meme had been written just for me: “Then here they come nevering like they never nevered before.” And now, nearly three years into that “temporary” job, I’m learning how to embrace gratitude in a place I once vowed never to be again.
At the retreat, the leader’s question pressed on a tender spot. I opened my journal and poured out every fear of being back where I thought I wouldn’t return. As I wrote, something softened. What God offered in return was the quiet assurance of His presence and a gentle nudge toward healthier rhythms—permission to approach this familiar work in a different way. In my honesty, God met me with grace.
I still felt sheepish telling friends and family I had returned to teaching after so boldly announcing my exit. But even that became an invitation to thank God for His wisdom. Despite my declarations, He knew that teaching again would bring gifts of grace, opportunities to rely on His strength, and provision our family didn’t yet know we would need.
When Resistance Yields to Gratitude
As reluctant as I was, gratitude began growing in the cracks of my resistance. Knowing God was with me made it easier to receive this unexpected season with open hands. Little by little, I recognized the gifts I would have missed had I insisted on my own way: the joy of exercising creativity in the classroom again; the delight of reconnecting with colleagues who make work genuinely fun; the privilege of engaging with bright college students who will do meaningful things in the world. What once felt like a barren desert has become a place of surprising joy.
If you find yourself in a “never again” season, what if you pulled out your journal and explored, with God, what’s stirring in your life and heart? For me, taking pen to page has become one of the most meaningful ways to notice God’s presence and see His heart. Sometimes God leads us back not to repeat an old story but to rewrite it in a brand-new way.
Here are a few journaling prompts that may help:
1. Pay Attention to Your Resistance
When God nudges us toward something we declared we’d never do again, journaling helps us name what feels hard or frightening. Writing slows us down enough to hear what God may be whispering beneath the discomfort.
2. Hold Loosely to Your “Never Again”
Sometimes our declarations are born from exhaustion, not direction. Revisiting them later may reveal they were never meant to be permanent. God often rewrites the stories we assumed were closed.
3. Look for Gratitude in the Cracks
Gratitude rarely arrives all at once. It often begins in small places—a moment of connection, an unexpected laugh, a task done with more ease than before. Journaling helps us notice these early sparks before we recognize them as gratitude.
4. Let Your Story Surprise You
Returning to something you thought was finished doesn’t mean failure; it may mean growth. Journaling can remind you who you were when you said “never again,” and who you are now—more grounded, more open, and more ready for God’s unexpected invitations.
Meet Allison Byxbe
Allison lives in South Carolina with her husband and three children, where she works as a college professor and a certified Journal to the Self instructor through the Therapeutic Writing Institute. She loves a good cup of coffee and an early morning walk on the beach. Allison is the founder and host of Saturday Pages and The Inky Collective—two thriving journaling communities. With a heart for God and a journal always at hand, she delights in tracing the lines of grace through every season of life.
Where to find her . . .
- Email newsletter (with free journaling prompt download)
- Preorder Journaling as a Spiritual Practice
Begin Within is a series to inspire a year-round lifestyle of gratitude that will impact not only your own life, but the lives of your neighbors as well. Gratitude is a theme we talk about often around here because it ties so closely into other missional living rhythms. Practicing gratitude reminds to keep our hearts soft and expectant and our eyes open. Therefore, the more we embrace gratitude, the easier it becomes to truly see our neighbors and where we can join what God is already doing in our neighborhoods.
If you would like to contribute to Begin Within, you can find the submission guidelines here.
