No Future In The Past

“Forgetting the past and straining toward what is ahead, I keep trying to reach the goal and get the prize for which God called me through Christ to the life above.”     Philippians 3:13-14

When I first read this Scripture, I disagreed with forgetting the past but as one studies these words of Paul, he
does not want us to forget who we were nor our foundation of faith.  We need to stop living only in the past.  We cannot add to the past nor change the past.  The memories of the past are events of the past that made a difference and impact in our lives.  Hopefully we have learned from them

We cannot look backward and still live in the present or move into the future.  In the beginning of our grief, we want time to stand still and we cannot imagine how to live in life without our loved one.  Life needs to slow down and give us time to reflect and catch our breath.  But as we know, time never does that.  It just keeps ticking and moving one tick of the clock at a time.

There comes a point in our path of grief that we begin to think about living again.  How do we live in this different life?  It is a life we did not choose but it is the life we currently have.  We want to live not just exist but living seems like a letting go of the past.

What I have come to understand is that the past is my foundation of life.  The past has taught me valuable lessons.  Some of these lessons have been through failures and very difficult circumstances, but I have grown stronger and more dependent upon God through this journey.  The past has revealed heartache and sadness but also the awareness that God is molding me and making me into who He created me to be.

So I am beginning to strain toward what is ahead.  I will never forget the love of relationships in my past.  They will always be a part of who I am, but I am reaching toward the goal of becoming all God has created me to be.  I want to hold God’s hand and leap into the future and find peace and joy again.

While the prize Paul refers to is Heaven as our ultimate goal, it is also the prize of living fully in the present and serving God faithfully each day.  Sometimes God calls us to grieve, too.  God wants us to express the emotions and feelings and release them into His care.  When we do not acknowledge these God given emotions, we are not being all God created us to be.  God wants us to experience every aspect of life and then walk with others on the journey – straining forward.  Life will never be the same, but it was not meant to be the same.  It was meant to be lived fully in the present.

I led a seminar this past week on grief.  A gentleman who attended was a retired pastor whose wife had died six years ago in the facility I was leading the seminar.  This gentleman comes every day to the facility and visits from room to room.  He said it has helped him to grieve and to comfort others with the same comfort God has given him.  He is not living in the past but finding meaning in his past to move him forward in serving and sharing and loving.  His visits bring hope and life into his own life.

I am grateful for my past and my relationships and all I have learned from the people and the experiences.  They have helped to shape me but do not define me totally.  There is more to come.  God is not done with
any of us yet as long as we still have breath in us.  Keep breathing, living and straining forward.  Yes, it is a strain at times – with hurt, pain and sadness, but keep trying and finding moments of living.  Those moments will come together and make a life.