My Thoughts On // Pressing Forward

Lately I’ve felt the Lord impressing the truths from Philippians 3:13-14 on my heart.  These familiar verses read: “…but this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before, I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.”

If you’ve known me for any length of time, you know that I’m a childhood cancer survivor.  I was diagnosed with Lymphoma at the age of 6.  My diagnosis was promptly followed by two years of treatment which, naturally, left a huge impact on my life.  It is not something I can just “forget” in a split second if I want to.  It is something I will remember for the rest of my life.

Last month was childhood cancer awareness month.  You may remember my blog post about it from last year.  Going into this September, I was really wanting to do something for childhood cancer awareness month; at least a blog post.  But I kept hitting walls when I tried to come up with something to do, or something to write.  Several of you gave me ideas (thank you so much!), but I never felt that it was the right time to use them.  I tried to write about my cancer story, but I didn’t get very far.

Other things reminded me that I needed to follow Philippians 3:13-14 more fully in this area of life at this time.  It took me a while to completely admit to myself that I needed to move on.  Yes, cancer left its imprint on me.  But it’s in the past.  And I can’t keep looking back to those things which are behind.  It’s not good for me.  God makes that clear in Philippians 3:13!

So, September came and went and I didn’t even write a blog post about childhood cancer.  I didn’t go back and read the journal entries my mom made during those tough years.  I didn’t pull out my Beads of Courage necklace.  I deleted my childhood cancer awareness board on Pinterest.

Hebrews 12:1-2 says, “Wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us, looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith; who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God.”

Let’s look a little deeper at this verse.  It says “…let us run with patience the race that is set before us, looking unto Jesus…” (Emphasis mine.)  Therefore, we know that the race we are on is in front of us; not behind us.  That’s pretty obvious, right?  You can’t run backwards in a race! And also, since we are told to look to Jesus as we are running forward, we know that Jesus is also in front of us.  Therefore, we cannot look behind us to find Jesus.  Yes, we can reflect on what He has done in the past for us, but in our race of life, He is the finish line.  He is ever before us.

Continuing on, we find that Jesus endured the cross because of the joy that was before Him.  Pressing forward is not always easy.  Sometimes it’s super difficult!  I’m sure that dying one of the most painful deaths ever wasn’t a walk in the park.  Pressing forward can be difficult and painful.  But God knows that it is the very best for us, just like He knew that pressing forward and enduring the cross was the very best for Jesus.  Maybe it doesn’t seem that way in the moment, but in the big picture, it is the very best thing.  I am certainly glad that Jesus persevered to the cross, aren’t you?!

Pressing forward looks different for each of us.  I am sure that the Lord has called many childhood cancer survivors to do great things for Him through their connection to the cancer world.  That may be what “pressing on” looks like for them.  But right now, in 2017, I’m pretty confident that that’s not what “pressing on” looks like for me.  I will always have the imprint that childhood cancer left on me.  But God has brought things into my life since then that I need to focus on instead.

My past distracted me from my focus on pressing forward.  What about you?  Is there any “weight” in your life that you need to set aside in order to press forward with all you’ve got?