Throwback Thursday? Yes, please!!

May 14, 2015

Do you know what today is?  No, that was yesterday.  Today is Throwback Thursday and it has led me to ponder on a couple of things that I hope you too will think about.

To begin with, who came up with this concept of remembering and sharing those recollections with all of Facebook?  Yeah, some of those pics of you as a kid are cute but others?  Some conjure up a life that is no longer and those reflections can be dimmed by sadness.

Next, the title of this:  THROWBACK Thursday.  Now, we're getting somewhere.  Because the past is gone, indeed let's do throw it back.  Waaaay back.  Isn't that why it's behind us?  Mmn hmn.

Paul told us in Philippians 3:13-14 that "I do not regard myself as having laid hold of it yet; but one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and reaching forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus."  Steve and I have been studying these verses the past couple of nights and last night he came up with a gem:  the past is something you have to live with not a place you have to live in.  

As he read me these words he had just penned from his journal, my head jerked up and I asked him to repeat them. "The past is something you have to live with not a place you have to live in."   Whoa!  Such wisdom from this man I am so thankful to call my husband!  Yeah, I'm sure it's been said before and pondered by us all but here it was, in a simple phrase, declaring this timeless truth:  the past is something you have to live with not a place you have to live in.

We don't have to live in the past but we do have to live with its consequences.  But, we do not have to let those choices determine our fates today though, now do we?  Nope!  We are not prisoners, enslaved to events that we may have had little if any control over.  Instead, we are more than conquerors, pressing ahead, reaching for the goal as we strive to be better day by day.  We don't have to walk around with our heads bowed low in shame.  Instead, we have been raised up, tried like gold, and are being refined in the image of Christ.  We are being made new daily, friends.  I don't know about you, but that gives me quite the sense of hope.

"...the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus."  My journaling last night consisted of how I love getting gifts, surprises, and accolades for a job well done.  If I stayed in the past, I would see and believe that I am not worthy of any praise, of any acknowledgments, nor any tributes.  But through the blood of Jesus, through His example of how to live and love, and through the grace of God, one day in the future I will cross that finish line and be rewarded for the good I have done.  My past won't be held against me.  Those deeds done in the flesh won't even be counted but what I did--what I do each day for Christ?  Ahh, that's where the treasure is!  I can't change the yuck I did yesterday but today is a new opportunity to shine for Jesus.  May I be one of His brightest stars today is my hope.

Let's pray!

Dear Lord, there are so many Thursdays and Mondays (oh those Mondays) and other days of the week, God, that I wish I could forget and not have to live with the consequences of.  Foolish behaviours and silly, childlike actions that separated me from You are a blight on my record.  But Lord, now that I am an adult and have put away childish things, I can grow to be more like You.  I can see clearly how effective my actions are and thus I can be more careful in my dealings, knowing that they may have lifelong implications on others.

For all the times I failed You, Lord God, I apologize.  For all the times I wasted by looking back instead of pressing forward, I sincerely regret.  Lord, my life is but a vapor.  May it be a sweet one, I pray, and not one of stench.  May the good I do linger in the air as a sweet aroma, leaving those around wondering how this small piece of heaven was revealed to them for just a moment in time is my prayer.  I ask these things in the name of my precious Jesus.  Amen.