If anyone could say that they "had arrived" as a Christian, it would have been St. Paul. His passion was to know Christ and the power of his Resurrection. He counted all things loss so he might know Christ in his life. Yet he begins this passage by telling us that he has not reached the top. If Paul had not yet arrived, then we know that we have not either. The danger in thinking that you have reached the fullness of the Christian life is that you cease looking for what God has for you. If you are no longer hungry and thirsty, you stop eating and drinking. And you shrivel up.

In our minds, we easily admit that we are not perfect. We know that we still need to grow in the Lord. And yet our actions often say something different. If we are hungry for the things of God, we arrange our time to go to worship, study and prayer, both by ourselves and with others. We seek out those who will help us to grow and encourage us. We are teachable by the Holy Spirit. We talk about the things of the Lord because, like Paul, they are on our hearts. It is not hard to spot someone who truly hungers and thirsts for the things of God.

When we think that only the time we spend "working" for the Lord is important, then we are acting as though we have arrived. It is so easy to get into the pattern of spending all your "religious" time teaching this class or leading that ministry. Mary and Martha threw a party for Jesus. Martha spent all her time scurrying about "working" to make the party a success. Mary just sat and listened to Jesus. In frustration Martha went to Jesus to complain and to have him make Mary help her with the work. Jesus told Martha that she was missing the most important thing: spending time with him.

When we spend our time working for the Lord and not also growing with the Lord, we lose focus as well. Like Martha, we look around at other people and ask why they are not doing their fair share. Jesus would tell us what he told Martha: "Yes, those other things are important, but you worry about them too much. You need to spend time with me." Our trouble is we act as if we have already arrived and we have not. It is time to lay down our self-important "busyness for the Lord" and grow in him again.

Once we admit with our minds and actions that we have not arrived, we need to press on to the goal. But there is an important step that is needed before we move on. Because of our sin, we cannot get there from here. We need to forget what is behind in order to strain on to what is ahead (v 13).

Forgetting what is behind is an important part of hungering and thirsting for Jesus. If we want to move forward, we have to forget what is behind. We have to leave off the things that have kept us from God in the past and turn towards God. I wish it was as simple as turning a car around or doing an about face, but it is not. The old ways of thinking keep coming back to us. Forgetting is sometimes a very purposeful act.

Old thought patterns come back and haunt us. We remember old wounds that we have forgiven and we have to forget them all over again by giving them back over to the Lord. We remember old sins that God has forgiven and forgotten. His grace helps us forget them and receive his forgiveness. There are old patterns that have taken down to sin again and again. We need to forget those paths and tear up the maps that remind us of them. If we want to move forward, we have to forget the past that kept us from God.

After the Israelites were delivered from Egypt, many of them looked back to the good food that they had there. Remembering the moments of pleasure and forgetting the years of pain, they even thought wistfully about the place of their oppression. If we are to press on to the glorious goal to which God is calling us heavenward in Christ, we have to forget that which has kept us from God. We need to help each other forget.

We see our need. We remove the obstacles. Then we move forward as we see the prize. Our citizenship is in heaven. Our goal will be reached there. But God’s blessings are for the here and now as well. Those who hunger and thirst for righteousness will be filled. This is a process. God is calling us heavenward. That tells us of the journey, not just the journey’s end. God has in store for us a very exciting path, filled with his provisions day by day.

Are you looking up to Jesus? Are you looking ahead to the goal of heaven? Look at the blessings of God’s presence, which are signposts along the way. No we haven’t arrived yet, but forgetting what is behind, let’s strain to what is ahead and press on to the goal for which God is calling us heavenward in Jesus Christ.