What kind of year has 2014 been for you? Does it make you
want to say, “Sorry to see you go,” or “Good riddance”?
Has it been a year of moving forward, accomplishing
significant goals and collecting memorable experiences? Or has it been a year
of treading water at best, or of moving backward, enduring disappointments and
suffering pain, whether physical, emotional or both?
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| Emerging from hazy past, sometimes the future can seem equally foggy. |
For many of us the ending of one calendar year and the starting
of another often prompt times for reassessing where we’ve been and where we
think we’re going. If the year has been a good one for the most part, we’re
eager to proceed, hoping to experience more of the same – or to build even more
elaborately on the foundation that’s been laid.
Sometimes, however, it’s hard to project where we think
we’re headed, especially if we’re not thrilled with the journey so far. The
past has a way of clinging to us even when we’d desperately like it to let go.
The past offers a particular conundrum. It’s often said
those who forget the mistakes of the past are bound to repeat them, but at the
same time inordinate focus on past events can become paralyzing. So how do we
strike a proper balance?
Paul the apostle offers a good example to follow. Writing to
followers of Jesus in the city of Philippi, Paul stated, “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 3:13-14).
This doesn’t mean the apostle had totally forgotten his past
misdeeds. He vividly remembered times when he zealously opposed those he later
came to regard as his brothers and sisters in Christ. “I persecuted the followers of the Way to their death, arresting both
men and women and throwing them into prison” (Acts 22:4). But he didn’t
dwell those wrongs, no matter how wretched they were, understanding he had
received God’s forgiveness. He’d become a changed man.
We all also have deeds we wish we hadn’t done or things we
dearly wish we had done when we had the opportunity, but the past is written in
stone. It can’t be erased. We can’t un-write our personal history, but starting
today we can create fresh, new, different chapters that don't have to result in remorse
and regret.
In that sense, like Paul, we also can “strain toward what is
ahead,” pressing toward those things God has called us to do as well as what He
wants us to become.
Then again, obsessing over the future can be as unproductive
as immersing ourselves with thoughts of what’s gone before. That’s why Jesus
offered this caution: “Therefore do not
worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough
trouble of its own” (Matthew 6:34).
Around the first of the year I have a personal tradition of
reviewing the previous 12 months, my successes and failures, along with what I
achieved in my quest to attain specific goals. And then I set new goals for the
coming year. But I know a year’s worth of goals won’t be accomplished in a
single day or a week. One day at a time is all we can do. We rightly plan for
the days ahead of us – tomorrow, next week, two months from now. But the events
of today have an annoying way of disrupting expectations for tomorrow.
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