Have you heard about the elderly man (maybe in his mid 80’s) who moved into a retirement community to spend the rest of his life there? Because of his charismatic personality, it wasn’t long until he had made a number of friends among the other residents. There was one lady he was especially attracted to and she was attracted to him as well. So they spent a lot of time together. Finally one evening he proposed, asking her to marry him.
The next morning he woke up remembering his proposal, but he couldn’t remember her answer. So he went to her and said, ‘I’m really embarrassed. I proposed to you last night but I can’t remember if you said Yes or No’.
‘Oh, thank goodness! You are that one’ she replied. ‘I remembered saying yes, but I couldn’t remember who asked me’.
Though we chuckle at that, sometimes I feel the same way about my new year resolutions. Many of us make great promises to ourselves about what we are going to do in the new year, but we usually abandon about the second week in January. Let’s be honest now. How many of you kept to your diet and exercise plans? Yes, there are some people who do keep their resolutions. Nonetheless, I want to talk about a resolution, which I guarantee, will make a radical difference in your life this year.
The apostle Paul writing to the Philippians talks about an amazing commitment in Philippians 3:13-14 – But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead. I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.
Forgetting is a difficult thing to do. Please keep in mind that biblical terminology ‘to forget’ does not mean ‘to fail to remember’. It is not like a brain malfunction or a mental gymnastic technique. It is very difficult to forget what has happened in the past. ‘To forget’ according to the Bible means ‘to be no longer influenced by or affected by’. God said in Hebrews 10:17 – and their sins and iniquities will I remember no more. This does not mean that God has a terrible or a bad memory. It just means is that God will no longer hold their sins against them or their sins will no longer influence his attitude towards them. Forgetting those things which are behind simply means that we break the power of the past by living for the future.
Self-evaluation sometimes can be a dangerous thing because we can err in two directions – 1) make ourselves better than we are, and 2) make ourselves worse than we really are. God does not want us to live a life that is being imprisoned by our past. Some of you might have had tough time last year. Or something bad might have happened in the last few years and that is now still troubling you.
Christians should be like runners who refuse to look around or look back but keep running with their eyes on the goal. Many Christians are trying to run the race looking backward. No wonder they stumble and fall or get in the way of other Christians. To look back at past successes or failures, or to look around to see what others are doing or saying, is to invite defeat.
Apostle Paul is encouraging us to put our eyes and trust on Jesus and strain towards what is ahead of us in 2024. He is saying is that we must not allow ourselves to be bogged down by our past failures, but leave them behind and move forward into the future that God has for us.
