Sometimes I feel so bad for public speakers, teachers, and pastors. Their lesson or speech may include a few thousand words and my brain only clings to about 100.
I have no good excuses for it. I just tend to walk away with a nugget instead of the entire chicken. I think on occasion I get the whole thing, but usually not. I just grab my little nuggets and go.
Today was the same.
The pastor was talking about pressing on. Specifically he was reading from Philippians and speaking about Paul's encouragement for people to forget what is behind and press on. I have read the verse a hundred times, and heard in quoted just as many. Forget what is behind, press on to the goal, run the race, win the prize, get the crown. Got it. But today in the midst of the reading and speaking the pastor said something I had never thought about before.
I'm pretty sure every message I have heard surrounding this passage has leaned toward forgetting all the bad stuff you did, the mistakes you made, the loss and hurt that has been in your life, and looking forward to the great prize-filled future that God has for you.
But today...today there was a new little twist on this passage.
Forget about the good as well.
What?
Pastor spent a few minutes, maybe even just one, talking about how we should not stay hung up on the glory days of the past. We shouldn't go to the memorial stone, remember the parting of the Red Sea, and say "ah those were the days. If only God would part the Red Sea again". We don't need the Red Sea parted again. That work was done. As awesome as it was to walk through dry land with the water raising up on both sides, there is something new for us.
The little nugget was tossed my way, I reached out and grabbed it and then thought about it for the rest of the sermon. I have no idea what else was spoken. The nugget was where I stayed.
Letting go of the good times in the past is hard for me. When I left Tennessee I remember being so sad, I kept looking back at the good times we had there with our friends. It took about a year for me to quit looking back long enough to realize that I had some amazing people right there in front of me in Virginia. Our life changed dramatically in Virginia and we saw good things there, different from the good things we had experienced in Tennessee, and then the same thing happened when we moved to Germany, we never found the same "good things" of Virginia but we had a whole new serving of blessings.
At this particular time in my life I don't have what Tennessee, Virginia or Germany brought me, and here in Issaquah I don't have the good things I had in Olympia, and as retirees we don't have the good things we had as a military family. I find myself looking back again at those "glory days', not allowing the past to be the past. I find myself longing for those things to happen again. For some reason I feel complelled to let my current people know "we were a military family" or "we lived in Germany". Why? Because what I have right now is somehow lacking but what I used to do/have/be was awesome.
So my nugget today reminded me that when Paul talks about "forgetting it" he is really just saying don't hang out there. Learn, grow, weep, celebrate, move on. Even from the good stuff.
Those days of the past are not my glory days, there is plenty more ahead, I just need to keep my eyes there.
I'm a horrible bike rider. Like really bad. Where my eyes are focused when I'm riding a bike is where my bike goes. I look to the left, I head that direction. I look to the right, and there I am in a ditch. When I try to look back, I just crash. I think Paul was saying that it doesn't matter if you just rode through a magical forest or a barren desert, you have to keep on moving forward, nothing good comes from trying to relive the past.
I have no good excuses for it. I just tend to walk away with a nugget instead of the entire chicken. I think on occasion I get the whole thing, but usually not. I just grab my little nuggets and go.
Today was the same.
The pastor was talking about pressing on. Specifically he was reading from Philippians and speaking about Paul's encouragement for people to forget what is behind and press on. I have read the verse a hundred times, and heard in quoted just as many. Forget what is behind, press on to the goal, run the race, win the prize, get the crown. Got it. But today in the midst of the reading and speaking the pastor said something I had never thought about before.
I'm pretty sure every message I have heard surrounding this passage has leaned toward forgetting all the bad stuff you did, the mistakes you made, the loss and hurt that has been in your life, and looking forward to the great prize-filled future that God has for you.
But today...today there was a new little twist on this passage.
Forget about the good as well.
What?
Pastor spent a few minutes, maybe even just one, talking about how we should not stay hung up on the glory days of the past. We shouldn't go to the memorial stone, remember the parting of the Red Sea, and say "ah those were the days. If only God would part the Red Sea again". We don't need the Red Sea parted again. That work was done. As awesome as it was to walk through dry land with the water raising up on both sides, there is something new for us.
The little nugget was tossed my way, I reached out and grabbed it and then thought about it for the rest of the sermon. I have no idea what else was spoken. The nugget was where I stayed.
Letting go of the good times in the past is hard for me. When I left Tennessee I remember being so sad, I kept looking back at the good times we had there with our friends. It took about a year for me to quit looking back long enough to realize that I had some amazing people right there in front of me in Virginia. Our life changed dramatically in Virginia and we saw good things there, different from the good things we had experienced in Tennessee, and then the same thing happened when we moved to Germany, we never found the same "good things" of Virginia but we had a whole new serving of blessings.
At this particular time in my life I don't have what Tennessee, Virginia or Germany brought me, and here in Issaquah I don't have the good things I had in Olympia, and as retirees we don't have the good things we had as a military family. I find myself looking back again at those "glory days', not allowing the past to be the past. I find myself longing for those things to happen again. For some reason I feel complelled to let my current people know "we were a military family" or "we lived in Germany". Why? Because what I have right now is somehow lacking but what I used to do/have/be was awesome.
So my nugget today reminded me that when Paul talks about "forgetting it" he is really just saying don't hang out there. Learn, grow, weep, celebrate, move on. Even from the good stuff.
Those days of the past are not my glory days, there is plenty more ahead, I just need to keep my eyes there.
I'm a horrible bike rider. Like really bad. Where my eyes are focused when I'm riding a bike is where my bike goes. I look to the left, I head that direction. I look to the right, and there I am in a ditch. When I try to look back, I just crash. I think Paul was saying that it doesn't matter if you just rode through a magical forest or a barren desert, you have to keep on moving forward, nothing good comes from trying to relive the past.
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