“Brothers, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold
of it. 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.” Philippians 3:13-14
As I considered what
to title this entry, I immediately went to the past as the topic instead of the
future. This gave me pause and a reason
to change it up. I started with
“Forgetting the past” and “Putting the past behind me,” and I realized that by
focusing on the past in my title, I am doing the opposite of what the above
verse in Philippians recommends we do, look forward and press on toward the
future. Letting go of my past
experiences has been one of the biggest challenges I have ever faced. And like
Paul, I do not consider myself having completely conquered this challenge. What I have done is taken several baby steps
toward the future and whatever it may hold.
More of my days and my time are consumed with looking forward rather
than back. When I do consider the past, tears and pain are no longer the first
things to come to mind as they were before.
I do not ache for what was lost as before. I see new adventures and learning experiences
rather than lost dreams and hopeful wishes that were never to come to pass. And I think that’s what it’s all about,
right? Seeing your future as you want it
to be and striving toward that goal instead of wallowing in memories of a past
that wasn’t what you expected it to be.
You can’t win the race if you are looking behind you all the time. It
slows you down and takes your eyes off the goal you are running the race
for. You can’t change or fix the past.
All you can do is take from it what was good and remember it with fondness and
learn from the bad, recognizing that God will never give us more than He has
made us to handle and knowing that in every difficult experience God will bring
awesomeness, if we let Him. I now take
the challenges in my life as an opportunity to look back at myself and how I
can become a better, more accomplished person because of the mistakes I made or
the hard circumstances given to me whether I brought them on myself or
not. That’s God refining me by
fire. In a weird way, I’ve come to enjoy
the process, once the pain of the heat being applied subsides a bit. It’s all part of the wisdom of our
Maker. “Father” knows best. Oh yes, you
can bet He does. We cannot always see
it, but He does know best. I, for one,
can’t wait to see what He has in store next!! So, today, on this celebration of
Independence Day here on the island, I’m having fun looking forward instead of
behind me for once…can’t wait to see where I’ll be spending the 4th
in 2014.
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