Forgetting What Lies Behind

"-Brothers, I do not consider that I have made it my own. But one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.-" (The Apostle Paul's Epistle to the Philippians ch.3 vs.13-14 ESV)

Forgetting the past is so hard to do, but so necessary. If we live stuck in the past, we will never move forward, and if we carry the past with us, we will never have the strength to climb out of the valley. What are we, then, supposed to do with the past? Live, learn, and and leave it behind? Will backwards, as Nietzsche would argue? Does our past define us or not? Is it that past that makes us who we are today?

Many of us try to leave our past behind and find it dogging us like our shadows. The past is always just a step behind us. But we need to realize that it is not our pasts that propel us toward the future, and we are not tied to our pasts by some metaphysical leash. Each of us has a divine purpose set for us.

The LORD said to Jeremiah, "Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, and before you were born I consecrated you; I appointed you a prophet to the nations." (the book of the Words of Jeremiah ch.1 v.5 ESV)

In this way, God has appointed each of us to our purpose. Some to be teachers, some to be healers, some to be leaders, some to be workers, some to be owners, some to be servants, some to be prophets, and all to be His ambassadors on Earth.

God will uses our pasts to weave out His purpose. As we learn from the words of Joseph, who perhaps learned this better than any man, "As for you (brothers), you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good, to bring it about that many people should be kept alive, as they are today." (the book of the Genesis ch.50 v.2 ESV) and in the words of the Apostle Paul, "-And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose.-" (the Apostle Paul's Epistle to the Romans ch.8 v.28 ESV)

We should not be so naive as to think that God's purpose for us is no longer possible because of a mistake we have made or that God must not have a purpose for us because of something that has befallen us. Paul hunted Christians before he became the apostle who would bring Christianity to the Gentiles and translate the Bible into Greek. Joseph was sold as a slave by his brothers and later falsely imprisoned for years before becoming the most powerful man in the world besides the Pharaoh himself and rescuing the world from a seven year famine.

Nietzsche purposed, in his idea of willing backwards, that we should actually will that all the things that have happened in our past happened. This is the same man who claimed that man, by forgetting Him, could kill God. You are not where you are because of anything in your past. You are where you are because God, who is your future, is calling you to have a future and hope in Him. You don't need to will backwards. Just will that God will guide your next step.

Let me say some things clearly. God is not dependent in any way upon man. You are not your past, just as Paul, in the end, was not a Christian hunter. Bad things happen, as they did with Joseph, but they don't determine, in any way, the outcome. And yes, we can learn from our mistakes, but we can also learn that poison is bad for us without drinking arsenic.

Whatever truth you have found in you past, learn it and know it. Then, that truth is not from your past, but a part of you right now. There is a time to remember, a time to laugh, and a time to mourn. But the past is past. You can't, by walking backwards, take back a step you've taken. So move on, toward that "upward call."

There is but one truth-past, present and future-to know, and He is Christ Jesus. He is the goal that we press on toward. Your identity is in Him, not in your past, and your future is in Him. So move towards Him, and forget what lies behind. For a glorious new day lies beyond the horizon. This is my Reality.