But here's my challenge for us today--let's not live in the past no matter whether it was good or bad. Some days in our past may have blessed us beyond measure--our happiness meter was off the charts. Other days may have scarred us and wounded us so profoundly that we wonder how we can even go on another day. But here's what I know in my mind, my heart and by my experience; whatever the past, good or bad, it's behind you. You can't erase it or change it--it is what it is. We should learn from it but we should never live there.

To live in the present, to forget what lies behind--good or bad, is a choice. The only person who can make that choice for you is you. Someone has said, "Wherever you are, be all there." I think that means in the flow of time too--be all in the 'present.' Choose this day to stop living in the past and invest in today. Whoever you are, invest in your friends, in people. Don't let the past rob you of the most precious possession you have this actual day--relationships.
Many of you who might take a moment to read this know that I am a follower of Jesus. You yourself might be one as well. In the passage where Paul says he forgets what lies behind, he goes on to say this; "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." Paul says I invest my present by pressing forward in this upward call of God in Jesus. You might ask, what is that call? Just a few lines before this Paul says, "I count all things as loss in view of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord." Here is that upward call Paul was pressing toward in the present-- to know Jesus. The relationship that mattered most to Him was knowing Jesus and I might add, making Him known to others. All the good in the past, all the trauma in the past--it was in the past. What mattered most in the present was to know Jesus better.
Whether you are a Christ follower or not, don't let your past rob you of the beauty of this day. And definitely don't let it keep you from seeking to know Jesus better and follow Him more completely.
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