“What can be more palpably absurd than the prospect held out of locomotives traveling twice as fast as stagecoaches?”
(The Quarterly Review, 1825)
“While theoretically and technically television may be feasible, commercially and financially, I consider it an impossibility, a development of which we need not waste time dreaming.”
(Lee Deforest, scientist and inventor, 1926)
“As a means of rapid transit, aerial navigation could not
“As a means of rapid transit, aerial navigation could not
begin to compete with the railroad.”
(William Baxter, Jr., Popular Science, 1901)
“The ordinary ‘horseless carriage’ is at present a luxury for the wealthy; and although its price will probably fall in the near future, it will never, of course, come into as common use as the bicycle.”
“The ordinary ‘horseless carriage’ is at present a luxury for the wealthy; and although its price will probably fall in the near future, it will never, of course, come into as common use as the bicycle.”
(The Literary Digest, 1889)
While the people who said these things were most assuredly intelligent, well educated men, they were not visionaries. They had a small view of the future. Too often, the church falls under the same spell as these men. We have a small view of the future. Our past can easily cloud our view of the future and make it difficult to believe that there are greater things on the horizon. The words of Paul speak directly to us about this.
Philippians 3:13–14 (NLT) - I focus on this one thing: Forgetting the past and looking forward to what lies ahead, I press on to reach the end of the race and receive the heavenly prize for which God, through Christ Jesus, is calling us.
Paul had a laser-like focus. His goal was to forget the past and press on toward the future. Paul had made plenty of mistakes in his past. He was well acquainted with sin. In fact, at one point in time he declared that he was the chief of sinners. He was full of arrogance. He had actively hunted down and persecuted Christians. He had even gone so far as participating in the brutal murder of Stephen. Paul, however, was not going to let that stand in the way of God’s plan for his life. He had found the grace of God that was greater than all of his sins and he was determined to walk in that grace instead of any sort of self-imposed penance.
But that’s not all Paul was leaving behind. The interesting thing about Paul is that there were parts of his past that would make any man proud. He had a wonderful family lineage that would capture the respect and admiration of any first century Hebrew. He was a very learned man. He had chosen early on in life to make every effort to follow the God of Israel and observed Jewish religious laws astutely. Paul knew that all of his past accomplishments actually stood in the way of becoming all that God wanted him to be. He laid aside all of his past successes so they wouldn’t blind him to his great need for Jesus and to the future God had planned for his life.
Paul wasted no time dwelling on the past. Instead, he focused all of his attention on the greater blessings that were yet to come. He wasn’t imprisoned by the sins of his past, nor was he satisfied with the accomplishments and accolades of days gone by. He knew that as long has he drew breath on this planet that God had something more for him and he was single-minded in his pursuit of Christ.
As we head into a new year, let’s take our cue from Paul. Let’s refuse to give the past our time, attention, and energy. God has great plans for the future, but if we’re living in the past we’ll never experience the glories of His future. Let’s press forward and grab hold of everything He has set before us. As we do, all I can say is, “Look out 2011! Here we come!”
