Healing’s Spiral Journey: Returning, Rising, and Becoming Part 1

Healing’s Spiral Journey — Returning, Rising, Becoming

When we imagine healing, we often picture a straight path:
Pain → Breakthrough → Recovery → Peace.

We might think of it like climbing a mountain: hard and dangerous, full of unexpected twists and obstacles. But once we reach the summit, we expect a beautiful view, looking back at all we’ve overcome — and how far we've come.

In reality, though, healing looks much more like a spiral:
You revisit old wounds, familiar triggers, and lingering doubts — but each time from a new place of growth, awareness, and strength. It may not feel new, and you may not feel strong, but you are changing and becoming more of who you are intended to be.

The spiral can feel disheartening. It looks like you’re going in circles, seeing the same landscape with every turn. It can even feel disorienting. I’ve had seasons where it seemed my sanity was slipping through a sieve. Why do I keep ending up here?

But from God’s perspective, you are rising.

Like a spiral staircase or an ascending path around a mountain, you may revisit the same struggles, but each time from a higher place.
You are not the same person facing the same pain. Each turn stretches you to trust God’s goodness more deeply.
With every loop, you become stronger, wiser, and more shaped by His grace.

A Word of Caution

It’s important to note: while healing can take us upward, spirals can also descend.
When we repeatedly choose unhealthy patterns — or persist in sin without repentance — the spiral can pull us downward.

This doesn’t mean every sin causes you to slide back instantly, but a lifestyle of unrepentant sin gradually leads deeper into darkness than we ever intend.

Sin always promises life but delivers death instead.

How Do We Know the Difference?

How do we know we’re growing if it feels like we’re stuck?

For some, maybe they truly are stuck. For others, the process from relapse to restoration includes failure — but they’re still moving in the direction of healing.

Ultimately, only we can discern the state of our own hearts.

We know the difference when we’re moving in faith — when we get up, brush ourselves off, trust in God’s forgiveness, and believe He is intimately involved in our lives. In that trust, we can be confident the spiral journey is still growing us, making us stronger, and lifting us upward toward Him.

But if we find ourselves in resignation, telling ourselves, “What the hell,” and continuing on in unhealthy attitudes and behaviors without repentance, then we’re likely not stuck either — we’re descending.

There really is no neutral ground.