Presently Past or Past The Past?

No, dear brothers and sisters, I have not achieved it, but I focus on this one thing: Forgetting the past and looking forward to what lies ahead, I press on to reach the end of the race and receive the heavenly prize for which God, through Christ Jesus, is calling us.

Philippians 3:13-14

 What is the purpose of the past?  The past is the time from whence we survived until the present.  Can we vacation there? We might try, but with little to no success.  Can we live there?  Believe it or not, there are lots of people who try to live in the past.  You will hear them tell tales of their past accomplishments over and over.  They will point to particular memorabilia which represent only moments in time.  

Then there are those who beat themselves with the past.  Some will lose themselves in their pasts.  Some will be so focused on their past that they cannot seem to move forward with any joy at all.  It's as if they have become extra in the "Walking Dead" just wandering through the present as if lost in a fog.

Look at today's verses.  The word Paul uses for "Forgetting" quite literally means "no longer caring for, neglecting, refusing to focus on."  What a precious gift God has given us of being able to ONLY live in the present!  It is very easy to focus on where we have BEEN (good or bad) because those moments have helped shape us, but we cannot focus our lives there.

Paul is not telling us to wipe the past from our minds as if it never existed.  He is telling us to focus on the present and press on toward the future having LEARNED FROM the past.  Let's face it, there are some parts of our past that we cannot forget and any attempt to remove them from our memory will only make then stand out even more.  We must learn to accept our past (which can not be changed) and live in the present in order to change our future.

Clinging to the past is like standing waist deep in wet concrete. People try to help you move  forward and climb out of the concrete because, if you don't, you will be stuck. Nothing bogs down present performance like carrying the loads of the past.  When we realize that we are not prisoners of our past!  In 2 Corinthians 5:17 reminds us, "When someone becomes a Christian, he becomes a brand new person inside. He is not the same anymore. A new life has begun!"

Let "Glory Days" be fond memories and a pretty awesome Bruce Springsteen song, but not your prison!