Philippians 3: 13-14 “Brothers, I do not consider that I have made it my own.  But one thing that I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus”    While it is important to remember and learn from the past, we cannot live or lead in the past.  I have observed so many men who seem to live in the past and simply cannot move on and look to the future.  The great poet Robert Frost wrote: “I can sum up in three words what I have learned about life, It Goes On.”  I believe that is what Paul is also stating in our Scriptures this week.  Life goes on and we must look to the future by having a vision of where we need to go and lead.  We simply cannot get bogged down in the past and must let it go.

It is not so much how we start as it is how we finish.  The Bible is full of examples of both those who started well but did not finish well, as well as those who may not have started well but finished strong.  Life is a long marathon, not a 100 meter race.  Runners who look back and take their eyes off the finish line ahead often do not win the race before them.  “Never look back unless you are planning to go that way,” Henry David Thoreau.  Jesus is our perfect example of a leader who always looked ahead as He saw the cross before Him.  Paul did not look back over his previous start in life which was contrary to living for Christ.  He looked forward and lived the vision of his life and leading in Christ for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.  What about you?  Are you leaving the past behind and looking to the future for the prize of God’s call on your life?