How To Successfully Achieve Your Goal

Brethren, I do not count myself to have apprehended; but one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forward to those things which are ahead, I press toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus. (Philippians 3:13-14 NKJ)

In 2008, Guideposts writer, Evelyn Bence related how she finished the year by shredding paper that had accumulated over the year. She decided that she couldn't proceed with planning for the new year until she had adequately dealt with the old one.

As Bence picked up each piece of paper, an associated memory flashed in her mind. Some memories were good and others were not, but as she shredded each paper she also "relinquished the experience" involved.

As a US Marine in South Viet Nam (1970), I experienced several traumatic events. Those memories plagued me for 20 years before I asked for help. Despite good counseling, some of those memories have persisted to the present -- 43 years later.

It isn't what I did in an event that troubles me. Instead, it is how I internalized the event that gnaws at my spirit. The resultant anger, grief, terror, sadness, feelings of betrayal, cold indifference, and failure to act all afflict me. It's those personal beliefs I held at the time and my self-talk since then that have continued to weigh me down. And I have learned that I can only put those issues to rest when I adequately deal with them and let them go.

Paul gives me both the principle and his personal example in one word . . . forget. Contained in Paul's thought are both what he believed about his past and his self-talk about it. He believed that Jesus Christ forgave him, covering his past with the blood sacrifice of Calvary. And when the adversary reminded him of his past, Paul reminded the adversary of Calvary.

Christ had dealt with "those things which are behind," so Paul knew that "forgetting" them enabled him to look "to those things which are ahead." Since Christ has dealt with my past on the Cross, I can simply forget it and look to my future.

Dear Father, thank you for Christ and Calvary. Enable me to focus my life in the present with a view toward the future. I pray this in the name of Jesus. AMEN

Today, look ahead and press toward the goal,