Moving Forward

I have no idea where the days went! One moment I was happily mapping out 2011 and the next I was wondering why I didn’t get the time to do all the wonderful things I’d planned for the year! It seems that once again life, and time, has had the best of me, and I’ve spent this last week debating between trying to salvage the year or let it go and plan for the next, again.

I suspect I’m not alone in this dilemma, and I know that for many of us, this can be a mighty depressing time of the year, since being human as we are, our tendency is to chronicle our failures and use them to color our conclusions as to whether this past year was a success or not. Whether there are written resolutions or not, the sense of ‘failure’ at some unachieved desire or things one just never got round to, weakened and failed relationships or prayers seemingly unanswered can seem rather overwhelming.

Ultimately though, we all have a choice when it comes to how we finish the year and enter into the next. We can choose to do it mopping around at our shortcomings or in thanksgiving at the things that did go well. We can move into the New Year looking behind or resolve to firmly look ahead without fear.

One of Paul’s most famous verses of Scripture is found in the third chapter of Philippians. In that chapter, Paul points out the folly of trusting in the flesh, noting that though he used to, he has come to a place where he has set aside that ‘legalistic righteousness’ for something higher. Then he says “…I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: forgetting what is behind and straining towards what is ahead…”

Paul knew what it meant to have missed the mark in human understanding. He also knew the fallacy, and danger, of camping in that un-attainment. So he provides what in my opinion is a practical and quite useful tool for continued success: forgetting what is behind and straining towards what is ahead. As children of God, we must always be looking ahead, with the realization that our goal is eternity. Our perceived (and sometimes real) failures should never stop us from continuing to strive for the things that God has for us.

Thankfully, one of the benefits of being a believer is the truth of redemption. God is not bound by the dictates of the calendar and His redemption spans lifetimes, even His redemption of time. What this means for us is that we can always trust Him with tomorrow, and we can trust Him to get us where we need to go, as long as we will keep ‘straining towards what is ahead.’

So this time round I’ve done a couple of things – I’ve written out a lengthy list of all the great things that God has done, the goals I’ve seen accomplished, and am spending time thanking Him about them. What about the other list, the one with the undone(s)? I simply edited and re-titled it afresh, believing again for this New Year. I’m moving forward.

I quite agree with the words of Ralph Waldo Emerson on this subject: “Finish each day and be done with it. You have done what you could. Some blunders and absurdities have crept in. Forget them as soon as you can. Tomorrow is a new day; you shall begin it serenely and with too high spirits to be encumbered by your old nonsense!”