We tend to get hurt when we don't know who we are

In the subsequent months, I had the chance to get together with "the girl" a couple more times. She lived in a different city, though, and this made it a little difficult to keep in touch. On the up side, by the time I got together with her in July, I had found a great deal of healing and restoration from my anxiety and was really thankful for meeting that woman who prayed for me.

I didn't know that this was to be my last meeting with "the girl". We had texted back and forth for quite some time, but only a few texts later we fell out of touch. It could have been a conscious decision on her part to purge me from her life, or it could have been inadvertent. I still don't know.

Regardless, at 25, for the first time in my life, I had fallen in love. I had never felt anything like that before. I was hoping that it would last, so when it started to fall apart, my heart broke.

At the time I had been playing with a new band that formed in February, and the guys were also my best friends. We took a camping trip one summer weekend (at least, I think it was a weekend) and they knew I was feeling sore about the whole situation. To this point, I had already been advised to "set her free", but it wasn't until this camping trip that I was counseled to erase all her texts and contact information from my phone.

Subsequently, that's exactly what I did. She didn't seem to be responding to any of my messages, so I finally let it go. We really didn't have much of a relationship yet, but I really liked her. Regardless, my friends told me that I was going through life like a robot (merely going through the motions) and it was killing me. I didn't want to do that anymore, so I had to let it go.

It isn't easy to release those things that we love, but it's a necessary part of our journey with God.