Remember to Forget

When I pulled a new book from its shelf, the back cover of a neighboring atlas flew out. I knew that paperback of maps I purchased in the early 1990s lurked somewhere in the bookcase, but I had not expected the past to fly in my face when reaching for something else.

Sometimes we linger too long on the past. In Philippians 3:13-14, Paul points out how to deal with distractions that come from dwelling in a detrimental way on yesterday: “Brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended: but this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before, I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.”