FORGETTING WHAT IS BEHIND
Philippians 3:13-14
"But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus"
I pushed hard... straining to make it to the little cut at the top of the mountain ridge. My body wanted to quit... but I kept pushing. I got almost to the top and I needed a break, to take a few big breaths and enjoy the breaking dawn. I had been climbing for over an hour and just needed to look back at the valley below, while I renewed my strength.
It was the last day of my archery hunt and I had been watching a small group of bull elk crest out of the valley we were hunting each morning at about sunrise. Once they got over the top they were on private property where I couldn't go.
After a few minute break I again trudged on. As I snuck to the edge of the ridge and looked down at the trail that led through the small cut in the ridge top, I could see antlers below me. I was too late and the bulls were just topping out, 100 yards ahead of me. If I hadn't stopped to look back, I would have been there waiting. That pause to look behind me, to get one more glimpse of what I had left in my past had cost me the success I was striving for.
This year is a new beginning. Out with the old, in with the new. The last couple of years have been tough with some major surgeries, cancer, the loss of friends and family... but dwelling on those things is useless. I must push forward. While I've had years that I was happy to be done with, I believe that through Christ, we can have joy in all things. We can find joy throughout a year of difficulties as well as triumphs.
However a new year does bring on feelings of new beginnings. We feel like it's a fresh start. As Paul wrote to the Philippian people, we look forward to the new things in life. It's is interesting in his letter that Paul writes, "this one thing I do" then he goes on to talk about two things. It would seem impossible to separate the two things... "straining toward what is ahead" and "Forgetting what is behind".
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It is impossible to keep our minds on what Christ has done for us and His love and at the same time, concentrating on what we've already been through in life. Whether our past memories are good or bad, they are in the past. Whatever those things behind were, Paul calls us to focus our minds and hearts on God and the goals He has for us in Christ Jesus. There is no possible way for us to look both ways at once. That's why looking away from "things behind" is something we are called to do. If we have received the forgiveness Jesus provided for us, we don't have to carry the bad memories with us into this new year.
We can thank the Lord that we can put behind us our emotional pain. We have each been hurt. God's promise of peace shows that we can move on from the hurt and pain and to a positive future in Christ.
If we look back at a painful past, we cannot focus on the future hope that Christ gives us. Every runner that leads a race knows, when we look back it causes us to lose stride and slow down. When I stopped to look back down the mountain, it cost me an amazing blessing ahead.
Forgetting doesn't mean, of course, that we wipe out our memories. It means we make a conscious decision not to let the past absorb our attention and hinder our progress. If we can move from this year to the next by choosing to be free from our past, we will be positioned to focus on the future and what God has in mind.
Instead of allowing ourselves to be consumed with our past (good and bad), we can focus and depend on who Jesus is and what He's done for us.
Let the things behind you go and spend your energy straining toward what is ahead.
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