“Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on.” Philippians 3:13
How often do you live in the past? The answer, of course, is that there’s only one time in which it’s possible to live and that’s the present. But that doesn’t mean that our brains and emotions stay in the present. We may live in the past by idolizing the way things used to be. We may wish we still had a certain person in our lives who has died or chosen to break off the relationship. Maybe we wish our children were small again. Or perhaps a job, a church, a Bible study, or many other possible situations no longer exists and we miss it. The one that I have been experiencing a great deal the last several months is wishing things could get back to “normal.” I’ve heard and said, “I just want my life back.”
The truth is that what we’re living right now is our life. It may have its challenges, but this (whatever “this” is) is the life that God has for us right now. I’ve heard people wonder if things will ever go back to the way they were. They answer is that they won’t. They never do. Situations change. People change. The future may be worse than the past, or it may be much better. But it won’t be the same.
Does this mean we should forget the past? God doesn’t seem to think so. Many times in scripture, we are encouraged to remember the past. We’re to remember the mistakes that were made so we can learn from them. Most importantly, we’re to remember God’s works in the lives of His people, and in our own lives. If we don’t remember the past, we’re destined to repeat the mistakes of history. At the very least, we would be required to reinvent the wheel. So I don’t think this verse is suggesting we forget what is behind, as in having no memory of it. Rather, we are to stop living in the past. Instead of wishing things could be the way they used to be, God wants us to strain forward to the future He has for us.
No one knows what that future holds except for God. So how can we prepare to face something unknown? By clinging to the One who knows the future. He is in the process of preparing us for what lies ahead. If we will just obey Him and follow where He leads, we will be fully prepared for the future He has planned. In time, the past will become a pleasant memory but one we wouldn’t want to repeat. Because we’ll know that we only meet God in the present. And He is always enough.