Forgetting What Is Behind

We were out on an adventure the other day and my two year old was running out ahead of us, eager for the next part of the fun. The path we were on was paved with gravel, so there were both smaller and larger rocks along the way. Stephen was running well as long as he kept his eyes on what was ahead of him, but occasionally he would turn his head to see if we were still following him and he would trip on the larger pieces of gravel and fall down.

Michelle pointed out to me that we often do the same thing in our lives. We will get out ahead and we will be doing well at leaving the past behind and then we will turn around and lose our focus on what is ahead by paying attention to what we have left behind. And that is when we’ll stumble.

The sins of our past have been dealt with at the cross of Christ. If we continually look back at them, they will cause us to stumble over and over again. In Paul’s letter to the Philippians he talks about what he does in order to obtain the victory that Christ has already won. “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.” (Phil. 3:13-14)

Is there anything in your past you need to leave behind? Do it!! There is so much more in store for us when we allow God to really set us free from the burdens that have weighed us down and kept us from moving forward.

Cleaning Out The Inbox

I cleaned out my email inbox today. It had been over a year. It’s funny the things you leave behind, and the story that is told as you look back at the events of your life. There were articles that I had intended to go back and read. There were strings of emails from my fantasy football league that were entertaining at the time that I just forgot to delete. There were emails reminding me of the challenges that we’ve faced in the last year. And there were the pictures I had sent myself from my phone of my children.

All in all, my inbox told me a story of growth and of the things that caught my interest in the past year. It reminded me of joyful times and of hard times, of challenges and of successes. Half of my son’s life has happened in the last year. He’s gone from walking to racing, from babbling to talking.

Personally, it has been one of the most challenging years of my life. And yet it has been one of the most formative years of my life. This blog has been silent since April in large part because of some of the challenges with which I have been dealing. They just didn’t need to be made public. But though it all, I have discovered and been reminded of one important guiding principle of my life—God is faithful.

Psalm 36:5 (NIV)
Your love, O LORD, reaches to the heavens, your faithfulness to the skies.