Everyone has a past. Some say their past was their better days. They sit and glory in what was, and spend their time reminiscing. I remember as a child going to my grandparent’s home. The norm was to sit and listen to stories of their childhood. I have always loved history, so as I listened, I would place myself in their stories. I hung on to every word they said. I was fascinated and intrigued by the hard times, and the fun times they experienced. Was there value in those talks? I think so because we can learn from other’s mistakes and successes, but the real value I gained was from the talks my Pawpaw would give me about the future. Every afternoon he would sit on the front porch and talk about going to the “sweet by and by.” He loved God and loved his Savior, Jesus.
My Pawpaw was only 10 when his father was killed, and there were 3 younger siblings. It was now his responsibility to help feed the family, so he quit school, and begin working on a farm for food for his family. He grew up working hard and continued as an adult, but when he accepted Christ as his Savior around the age of 35, he felt in his heart he must learn to read. He worked in the coal mines at night and went to school with his children in the morning. His desire was to read the Word of God. As a child, I remember every afternoon he would come in from working on the farm, sit in his rocker, and read his Bible. By the time I came along his hearing had failed him, so nothing distracted his reading. He had his own worship service with God every day. He would move to the front porch after reading and sing “In the Sweet By and By.” He rarely hit a note correctly, but it didn’t matter to him, or to God. When he talked, he was not consumed with the past, even though he had a very rich and colorful past. He was drawn to the future! All he wanted to talk about was going to Heaven! If you came for a visit, his last words to you would be, “When you come back I won’t be here, ’cause I’m going home. So, I’ll see you over there.” He longed to go to Heaven. He understood what Paul was talking about when he referred to putting the past behind and reaching forth to the future.
Philippians 3:13-14 “Brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended: but this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before, I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.”
It doesn’t matter what we achieved in the past, those days are gone. Hopefully, we have done some things that will have eternal value, but we cannot live on past blessings. We can’t allow our past failures to determine what we will do in the future. Because of poor choices, our future may be limited in certain areas, but we still press forward. The problem with focusing on the past, either good or bad, is that it is usually about us. Paul is telling us we need to refocus, to literally press, or strain for the goal. The future is focused on God, not us.
When I read this passage, I have a mental image of a running back in football. He’s going down as he approaches the goal line. Now, with every ounce of energy, he stretches forth his arm, and with the ball in his hand, he holds it just over the goal line. It’s a struggle. He’s exhausted, but he scores! That’s my mental picture of straining for the goal to win the prize that God has called us to.
We must lay aside our past failures and successes to possess our future. While here on this side of eternity, we have much to do for the cause of Christ. We can’t allow ourselves to be so weighed down by our past that it renders us ineffective in building the kingdom. Forgetting the past does not mean we wipe it from our memory, rather we make a conscious decision to not allow the past to absorb us and rob us of future progress.
Paul had one great purpose in life. He did not try to hang on to his past successes as a Jewish leader. In the world we live in, he would have had much to boast about, but he chose to put that behind him. He did not try to have the past, present, and future all bound up in one ball. He understood seeking to “have it all” would impede his progress when seeking to press forward. He did not attempt to gain wealth, and salvation, nor honor here, and a crown of glory in Heaven. He had one great purpose in life and he renounced anything that distracted him from his goal of honoring Christ.
Albert Barnes states beautifully how we are to live out “pressing forward.” “Let us then so live that we may be able to say, that there is one great object which we always have in view, and that we mean to avoid everything which would interfere with that.”
We need to be like the runner who is running for the gold. He does not look back to see where the other runners are, or how much ground he has covered. If he is going to win, he must stay focused on the prize. That is how we need to run for Christ, pressing, straining with all our energy to honor and glorify Him.
