There is
an old Russian proverb, “Dwell on the past and you'll lose an eye, forget the
past and you'll lose both eyes”.
This
time of year is one where we do a lot of looking back as we also look forward.
Where we have been, where we want to go and why we are where we are. The past
is an excellent teacher but can be a burdensome travel companion. We need to
learn from it but we can’t stay in it.
Sometimes
however, we try. ‘Back in the day’ or ‘we used to’ are only good thoughts if
they are trying to help us learn what to do now. Getting stuck in the past doesn’t
work. That was then not now.
Yet in
our desire for progress, we would be fools if we don’t consider the failures
and successes of what came before. I don’t
want to walk backwards but doesn’t mean I’m not shaped as I go forwards by the road
that I once trod. The past isn’t a map but more of a compass. It doesn’t show
you where to go but more of the directions you need to head.
In Philippians
3:13-14, Paul writes “Brethren, I do not
regard myself as having laid hold of it yet; but one thing I do: forgetting
what lies behind and reaching forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the
goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus”. He knows that
we can’t be what we were if are moving forward.
Yet
in the next few verses, he exclaims, “however,
let us keep living by that same standard to which we have attained.
Brethren, join in following my example, and observe those who walk according to
the pattern you have in us. Don’t dwell in the past
followed by the idea of holding to a previous pattern and example.
Paul
understood this strange paradoxical situation as well. We can live in the past
but we can’t ignore it lesson either.
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