Article By: Curtis Beaird
Photography By: Norma W. Beaird
It is an easy thing to list the fears and failings, the mistakes and disasters of every day. Tsunamis and bank failures, kidnappings and government corruption have become the stuff of our daily life. Turning first to the obituaries and police blotter are old habits for more than a few. Our color TV’s offer us a ringside seat at a safe distance to view mudslides and human suffering as though it were a spectator sport.
But, is there a more excellent way? Is there more do to with our minutes, hours, days, weeks and our life than watch the parade of sorrow? Is there something better to do with our energy than fight the sneaky little fear in the back of our mind, "What if that happens to me?" Is there something more to do with ourselves than complain, and call it living, when by fits and starts we spend ourselves in a cloud of nostalgia, longing for a day lost and long gone?
Nope, there isn't. That's the best we've got. Tears and trauma and more of the same are on the way. Stay tuned, it only gets worse. "Those poor people, and how long will it be before it's my turn?"
You got it right; the light at the end of the tunnel is an oncoming train. The glass is half empty. It will never be the same. I sure wish it was like it used to be. And, on and on and on, all the way down into the bottom of the dark valley.
You might believe in darkness, but the Apostle Paul believed in the light. "...forgetting those things which have gone before, I press on toward the mark of the prize of the high calling in Christ Jesus.” Paul had better things to do than complain and live in fear. He apparently believed that there was no way to modulate the human voice in such a way as to make a whine acceptable to God.
So, a man whose days knew whipping, stoning, imprisonment and the fear of being hunted, offers us his counsel to have a bad memory. “Forgetting those things which have gone before.” That’s what the man said - Forget. Instead of Paul locking himself into the bad bind of regret and grief or the pathetic sticky goo of nostalgia, he chose to look toward the better day in Christ's high calling.
Let's face it. There are many voices out there. Most would gladly take us down. Why not listen to the Voice that would guide us toward the light and the better way? Listen for the high calling of Christ.
Philippians 3: 13 - 14
Brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended: 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.
Copyright 2011, Curtis Beaird. All rights reserved.
