We’ve all been there. You’re trying to move forward, trying to grow, trying to live out your faith with genuine joy—and suddenly, the voices start yelling.
Sometimes it’s an old habit whispering your name. Sometimes it’s a religious checklist telling you that you aren’t doing enough, praying enough, or measuring up. Before you know it, you’re looking backward, white-knuckling your way through life, feeling like a prisoner to your past or your performance.
If you need a reminder that you were made to go forward, not backward, it’s time to look at a brilliant letter written two thousand years ago, paired with an absolute jam of a 1983 pop anthem.
Pull up a chair. We’re doing a deep dive into Colossians 2 and 3, and we’re letting Matthew Wilder’s hit “Break My Stride” provide the soundtrack for our spiritual freedom.
1. The Warning Track: The Kidnapping of the Mind
In Colossians 2:8, Paul drops a massive guardrail for the early church:
“See to it that no one takes you captive by philosophy and empty deceit, according to human tradition, according to the elemental spirits of the world, and not according to Christ.”
Paul uses a rare Greek word here for “takes you captive”—sylagōgōn. It literally means “to carry off as plunder” or “to kidnap.” He isn’t worried about believers losing an argument; he’s picturing an enemy army marching in, stripping people of their freedom, and dragging them off in chains.
How does the enemy kidnap us today? Through “empty deceit” and human regulations. In Paul’s day, it was the “Colossian Heresy”—a cocktail of rigid rules, dietary restrictions, and spiritual elitism. Today, it wears the mask of modern legalism, self-help checklists, or secular philosophies that tell you that you have to fix yourself.
It’s the grueling burden of: “Do not handle, Do not taste, Do not touch” (Colossians 2:21). It sounds deeply spiritual, but Paul exposes the truth in verse 23: man-made rules have zero value in actually transforming a human heart. They just keep you trapped in an unlocked cell and behind prison fences.
2. The Great Rescue: The Ultimate Victory Parade
So, how do we stop the slow drift backward? We look at what Jesus did on the cross. Paul pulls back the courtroom curtain in verses 13–15 and reveals three explosive truths:
• Our Debt is Erased: Every single failure, every broken rule, and every piece of past guilt formed a mountain of unpayable debt. Christ took that exact rap sheet and nailed it to the cross, wiping it completely clean.
• You are Filled: You don’t need “Jesus plus” a checklist. In Christ, the whole fullness of God dwells, and you have been filled in Him (v. 10). You are completely whole from day one.
• The Enemy is Disarmed: Verse 15 says Jesus stripped the dark spiritual authorities of their armor and “put them to open shame, by triumphing over them.”
Paul is using the imagery of a Roman Triumph Parade. When a Roman general won a massive war, he would ride through the city streets in a gold chariot. Behind him, the defeated enemy kings and soldiers were marched in chains—completely stripped of their weapons, exposed to public ridicule, proving once and for all they were utterly powerless.
To the physical eye, the cross looked like Jesus’ defeat. But in the spiritual realm, the cross was Christ’s victory chariot. He stripped the enemy of their weapons. They have nothing left to throw at your feet to trip you up.
3. Flipping the Script: The “Break My Stride” Anthem
This is where the music kicks in. When you truly grasp that your debt is gone, your security is locked in, and the enemy is marched in chains behind Jesus’ chariot, your daily walk changes.
If you reframe Matthew Wilder’s Break My Stride through the lens of Colossians, it becomes the ultimate anthem of spiritual defiance:
“You’re dealing with a person I used to be…”
When old guilt or legalistic groups try to shout accusations at your past, you can look them in the eye and say, “You’re talking to a corpse.” Colossians 3:3 declares that your old self died, and your new life is hidden with Christ in God. You are tucked away in the ultimate divine vault. To get to you, an accusation has to break through God the Father and Christ the Son first. Good luck to them. I say that because I don’t believe in luck. They can’t reach you.
“The road behind was rocky…”
Oh, it was worse than rocky—we were spiritually dead (Colossians 2:13)! Striving to satisfy human traditions and earthly expectations is a exhausting, rocky dead end. But we’ve stepped off that path.
“Ain’t nothin’ gonna break a-my stride, nobody gonna slow me down…”
This is your declaration of forward momentum. In Colossians 3:1–2, Paul commands us: “Since you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above… Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth.”
To look back is to look back at the shadows of the chains, “don’t touch, taste, or handle” however, to move forward is to rest in the “it is finished.”
To look back is to look at the shadows of checking your own performance to see if you are measuring up to man’ chains. To move forward is to keep your eyes fixed on Jesus.
And to look back at the shadows is to be “kidnapped” by guilt and human expectations. However, to move forward, we need to keep singing “nothing gonna break-a-my stride” and keep marching with Christ in His unstoppable cosmic triumph parade.
Keep on Movin’
We don’t go backwards; we go forwards.
The next time a legalistic checklist tries to put a speed bump in your way, or your own conscience tries to drag you back into old definitions, tune out the side-talk and look up. Your roots are planted in a completely different world now.
Crank up the joy, set your mind on things above, and remind the world, the enemy, and your own heart: “Nobody is breaking my stride. I’m hidden in Christ, and I’m moving forward.”
The Anchor Point 
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