The Way Back with Ben Affleck is a movie about a guy finding his way back from hell – it’s about loss, about alcoholism, and about life long, deep rooted anger.

“We can’t change the past; what we can do is choose how we move forward.”

This movie will tug at your heart strings and honestly, some of it hurt my heart to watch – it hurt so much I wanted to turn it off.

But it’s the kind of movie that we need to watch because it needs to spark the conversations about real life and the hard situations that affect every one of us.

My big take away wasn’t that we all deserve a second chance or that we can each overcome our battles – my big take away was that even when we are trying to find our feet, even when we are suffering, even when we are not at the top of our game, we can make a difference. And maybe sometimes it’s those imperfections in us, maybe it’s the moments we are at our weakest, when we make the biggest difference.

“Pain and grief are part of your life, part of your story; but it’s not the whole story, and it’s not the end of the story.” ~Ben Affleck

The road to redemption is hard and ugly and painful. It doesn’t happen over night. It’s a long journey with lots of roadblocks and speed bumps. The mistakes and the mess-ups we make along the way are sometimes the very things that help us get to the next step.

Wherever you are in life, whatever challenges you’ve faced, whatever failures you’ve had, whatever suffering you’ve endured – it’s only a part of your story.

If you watch The Way Back, be sure to take a few minutes to also watch the special feature “Every Loss Is Another Fight: The Road To Redemption”. It’s worth it.