Chelsea midfielder Willian had returned to the squad earlier this week after spending some time in Brazil on compassionate leave. During the last international break, his mother had passed away after a two-year battle with cancer, and Willian learned the news just as he was heading back to England. His mother’s deteriorating condition had weighed heavy on his mind in the weeks and months leading up to the break, but none of that could properly prepare him for a most tragic loss.
Chelsea head coach Antonio Conte had spoken of Willian’s mental strength prior to Wednesday’s League Cup match, in which the Brazilian returned to the starting lineup, albeit in a losing effort against West Ham. Sometimes, resuming the day-to-day grind of the normal everydays is therapeutic.
On his Instagram account, Willian posted an inspiring, uplifting message as he continues to deal with and move on from such a massive loss.
Which auto-translates, more or less, to:
To live an extraordinary life it is necessary to break with the bonds of the past.
How many people are trapped in the past, how many were in the past? The truth is that Satan is an age-old psychologist, as he prevents you from living in the present and believing in your future by holding you in the past.
Sometimes, due to the circumstances that made us cry in the past, and these circumstances always lead to the past, and we're stuck in it, not wanting to live in the present, because it seems like the past fills all situations. But we can also be brought to the past by good circumstances that we have lived.
However, the only way to live well in the present, in the presence of the Lord, is to break past ties. Don't let your past keep you from living your present. Break with his past, because when the devil is watching, being our accuser, he is always going to send us to the past, but people when they look at us, always see our present.
And how's your present? Now, God he knows our past and forgiven it, he knows our present that we confess for his blessing, but he is also securing our future. God is already you see up front, what he has for your life is far greater than your past.
Your past can't be changes, but its future is still intact. "I'm willing to go anywhere, as long as it's forward.”
The message is clear.
Stay strong, Willian!