A Life Shaped and Re-shaped by Prayer

Thursday, Week 3 - Philippians 3:10-14: Resisting Regret

I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection and the sharing of his sufferings by becoming like him in his death, if somehow I may attain the resurrection from the dead.  Not that I have already obtained this or have already reached the goal; but I press on to make it my own, because Christ Jesus has made me his own. Beloved, I do not consider that I have made it my own; but this one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on towards the goal for the prize of the heavenly call of God in Christ Jesus.

Forgetting what lays behind, Paul strains forward to what lies ahead.  Some people are so tied to the past that they find it hard to live contentedly in the present and harder still to press onward with life.  For some this is because of a great tragedy or loss, for others it is due to great regret. 

Paul had regrets too.  We read in Acts chapter 8 how formerly Paul was what we now-a-days would label as a religious terrorist. He consented to the stoning death of one Christian; and then passionately focused his attention on destroying the Christian Church, going from house to house, dragging off men and women and putting them in prison (Acts 8:1-3).  But then Paul encountered the risen Christ, and in that experience he understood that he was being granted the undeserved gift of a brand new start.  From that moment onward what will motivate Paul’s passionate work, sacrifice, and suffering for the sake of a variety of church communities is his profound gratitude for that gift.

Baptism is our new start.  We are baptized into the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ and a great exchange occurs: he gets our brokenness and sin and we receive his righteousness, his forgiveness, and his Spirit.  Baptism is our new start, and baptism is something that we live every day; every day this great exchange with Christ takes place, every day is an opportunity to start anew.

Martin Luther advised beginning each day by making the sign of the cross and acknowledging that you will be living this day marked by that sign, “In the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit.”  I begin many days by saying, “This is the day the Lord has made, let us rejoice and be glad in it.”  (Psalm 118:24)  Both are ways of acknowledging that in this new day, each day, God (whose Spirit is at work in us) gives us opportunity for a new start. 

Oh, and if you’re not convinced.  If you think you have made such a mess of things in your own dysfunctional life that a new future is impossible, bear in mind that: the family of Abraham and his two wives was a mess, Jacob was a cheat, Moses was a murderer, David was an adulterer, and Jesus’ closest disciples were so enamored with themselves and so focused on who among them would be considered greatest that they ended up abandoning Jesus in the end.   It seems God does some of God’s best work with screw ups.   

This is the day the Lord has made, let us rejoice and be glad in it.  Amen.

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