Slingshot Weekly (11/26/25) | Old Chapters to New Stories

We all have chapters we wish looked different - decisions we regret, opportunities we missed, things we said that still echo in the back of our mind.

It’s easy to get stuck replaying those moments, editing them in our head over and over again. But life was never meant to be revised backward. It was meant to be written forward.

The truth is this: your story isn’t over just because something didn’t unfold the way you hoped. The moments you’d rather erase aren’t the conclusion - they’re the tension before the turning point, the setup before the breakthrough. Every meaningful story has a plot twist, a setback, a chapter where the main character questions everything. Why would yours be any different?

You can’t change what happened. But you can change what it meant.

That’s the real power you carry - the power to rewrite the interpretation, not the event.

• “I failed” can become “I learned.”
• “I wasn’t enough” can become “I’m building strength.”
• “I don’t belong” can become “I’m finding where I fit.”

Growth isn’t about pretending the hard chapters never existed. Growth is understanding that those chapters shaped your depth, your resilience, and your perspective. They didn’t ruin your story - they enriched it.

Think about anyone you admire. Their strength didn’t come from a life without mistakes. It came from their willingness to keep writing in the middle of uncertainty. It came from their ability to look at the mess and say, This isn’t the ending. This is the middle.

That’s what courage really is- not erasing pain, but moving through it with intention. It’s picking up the pen when you least feel like it. It’s choosing to believe that the next sentence still matters, even when the last one hurt.

You are the author of your story. You always have been. You always will be. And the pen is still in your hand.

Reflection Questions

1. What is one moment from your past you’ve been viewing as a “failure” that might hold a different meaning today?

2. How would your story shift if you rewrote that moment with compassion instead of criticism?

3. What strength or lesson did that difficult chapter teach you, even if it was painful?

4. What does “redeeming the past” look like for you in this season of your life?

5. What is one small step you can take this week that signals you’re ready to write a new chapter?