Living Unstuck

The past is in the past. I’ve often struggled with this line of thinking because, personally, I struggle with letting things go. So the passage of scripture that we are looking at this week stumps me. Paul writes the following:

“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…. Philippians 3:13”

I believe two things happen when we look back (in the past), we either marvel at our accomplishments, or we dwell on the mistakes. Neither is good because the result is often that we become stuck in the past. We fear moving forward because of the mistakes we’ve made in the past, or we fear moving forward because we might not achieve the success we did in the past.

After reading some commentaries on this subject and meditating on these scriptures I believe what Paul is saying is that we are not to focus so much on the past that we miss what God has in store for the future. It’s important to remember and reflect—especially on the great mercy and grace God has shown to us. But the key is to not become so focused on the past that we get stuck there.

Here’s a silly illustration. Picture in your mind that you are driving your car. You are driving down the street in your town going 40ish miles per hour, but instead of looking out the window ahead of you, you are looking in the rearview mirror for the whole drive? Yikes! Remind me not to drive when you are on the road….. Seriously, would any mature driver do such a thing? No way! We would miss what was going on ahead of us. And missing what’s happening ahead could be disastrous.

Friends, I believe Paul has some very important advice in this scripture. He does not want us to be so self-focused that we miss what God is doing around us. Isn’t that what being stuck in the past is really about—selfishness? When our focus is on ourselves it is off of God. Moving forward means focusing on God and trusting that He holds our future.

I find great comfort in knowing and claiming that, “Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today and forever (Hebrews 13:8).” He is the God that reached into my past and gently moved me into the present. And He is the same God that will walk with me into the future and show me the way.

It’s time to live unstuck.