Let Go Of The Past
by Dan Jones, M.D.
Philippians 3:13-14
Brothers, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. 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.
Paul is giving advice to his Christian friends in the church at Philippi. He loved these people and you can tell it in the way he writes to them. Some of Paul’s richest portrayal of Christ and the Gospel can be found in this letter. In this passage, Paul is advising about new beginnings. Paul calls on the followers in Philippi to “forget what is behind”. And Paul was in a position to give this advice.
Paul had lived an interesting life and there was much behind him. He had many failures in his past, the greatest of which was his persecution of Christians in the early church prior to his conversion on the Damascus road. Paul had much to regret. But he was not weighed down by these failures of the past as he pushed forward to proclaim the gospel.
And Paul had success in his past, as well. By the time he wrote this letter, he was clearly the leader of the early missionary movement. Paul had started scores of churches and thousands had come to a salvation experience under his ministry. But Paul was not weighed down with the success of his past any more than he was from his failures. He was living in the present and advised his Philippian friends to do the same.
I recall now with laughter the day we began our move to Korea. I had been in practice for seven years. We had two children. We lived in a large house pursuing the American dream. When the three tiny crates arrived for us to pack all we would take to Korea from our home, Lydia and I both laughed. How could we possibly take all our family would need for four years in those tiny crates?
The solution was in Paul’s advice to “forget what is behind”. We re-evaluated our needs and our wants. We made decisions looking ahead, not behind. And we had much more than we ever needed in stuff. Four years later, the second time we packed crates to go back to Korea after a short trip back to the States, it was not even a challenge.
Lord, help me to forget what is behind and focus on what you have for me today.
Dan Jones, M.D., MACP, FAHA, a board-certified Internist, a former medical missionary to Korea, professor of medicine at the University of Mississippi School of Medicine, Dean of the School of Medicine, and Chancellor of the University of Mississippi until 2015. Dr. Dan Jones is a member of CMDA.
Dr. Jones welcomes any comments or questions about what he has written and can be reached at - djones@umc.edu
Rounds with the Master, Spiritual Pearls from the Great Physician Devotionals are released every Monday and Thursday.
Photo by Markus Spiske on Unsplash
