Hey, Dorothy!

Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already been made perfect, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me. 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. (Philippians 3:12-14)

 

          This passage is all about me. It’s all about you. This is a recipe for joy: forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead. I tend to get half of the first part right. I forget what is behind if it’s a good thing. I remember it if it’s bad. That might not be too bad if the bad memories served to keep me humble or even realistic, but they don’t. They bludgeon. They condemn. They paralyze. It doesn’t matter that the memories are from ten, twenty, forty or even fifty years ago. I’m not talking about the sort of history that Paul had. I didn’t conspire to kill anyone.

          I’m not suggesting that we refuse to learn from the past, but I am suggesting that we keep in mind that it is the past. I pray for direction. It’s hard to move on down the highway when one keeps driving along the same old neighborhood. This passage tells me that God’s response to these flashbacks is “Not that way.”

When Dorothy met the Scarecrow, he told her that both ways led to the Emerald City. Both ways…not all three ways. Think about it. There were more than three directions she could have gone, but there were three roads, not two. She could have gone back to her house and lived with having committed witchicide with a house in the field and having stolen shoes from her.

          Stop living with dead witches as the foundation of your house. The past is prolog, not destiny.