Chaotic Joy

Last night we had another night of looking into Philippians to find a chaotic joy in our life.

It
was
a
hard
night.

What made it hard you ask? I wish you could have been there. The passage in Philippians was 3:12-14.

Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already been made perfect, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me. Brothers, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.

This is an innocent sounding paragraph. But the great thing about the Word of God is that it is simple to understand, but has so many applications!

When Paul says our goal is to press on, he gives two ingredients to do that.

Step One: Forget the past
Step Two: Strain forward toward the goal

Sounds simple. But in order to "forget the past," we have to deal with it. This, just, got, hard.

Dealing with our past can be hard. We all struggle with confidence, depression, the way we look, anxiety. That can be hard, and when you throw in the stuff that we have been through personally (addictions, cutting, abuse, suicidal thoughts, divorce, loss of family) it can be very hard to deal with that.

Our small groups last night started that process! I have heard great things (don't worry, no details) about how open a lot of people were about their past and how they need to deal with it.

The reason we need to work through step one (deal with the past) is because it can hinder step two (grow in God). So many times we feel that we are not becoming more like Christ because we are still hurting about our past.

Guess what? We have an amazing God who is the Remedy for broken-ness, pain, hurt, loss, (insert your past situation here).

When are you going to forget the past? What steps have you taken to deal with the past? What is keeping you from forgetting the past?

much Love,
johnny

p.s.- I am still trying to forget this part of my past!