The pain of our pasts always seeks to force its remembrance into our present. By doing so, it can change the course of our future. I’m finding that happening in the natural with the wounding of my little toe. A falling razor in the shower landed on it and took a good size chunk out of it. The pressure of a shoe still brings some pain and forces me to limp to try to relieve it. Once that shoe is removed, I have found I still limp, even though the actual pain is gone. I must make a determined effort to again walk naturally.
That doesn’t just happen in my body, it also is a pattern in my heart. Pains, wounds, things I thought healed often try to return and cause my heart to “limp.” Paul reminded his Philippian readers that one thing he did was to forget what is behind. He made a conscious determination to put the past in the past and forget it. But just telling the past to remain there isn’t always enough. Paul said there’s another step, and that step may be even more important.
“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.” [3:13-14]
Paul shifts his focus. He strains toward what is ahead. The word he uses means to “stretch oneself forward.” He adds that he presses on toward the goal, the prize that awaits him. Pressing on means, literally, “to pursue.”
The only way to prohibit the past from forcing itself into our present, is to focus on the future prize that waits for us just beyond that finish line. When I picture that in my mind, I see those runners in Olympic races pushing out their chests and almost throwing their bodies forward as they reach the finish. They know the gold, silver, bronze accolades that await just beyond race’s end. For me, I know what awaits beyond the finish line, my Savior and Lord Christ Jesus. I can see Him in my mind’s eye calling me, encouraging me, holding out His arms to me. So, like Paul, I stretch myself forward to Him.
