“I press on to take hold of that
for which Christ Jesus took hold of me.” Phil. 3:12
Broken, but not crushed.
As we enter this New Year and reflect on time gone by, good
and difficult memories intermingle, creating a myriad of emotions within. The
particular emotions and memories that “stick”, however, are the ones to which
we place our focus.
On what memories are we going to choose to focus our
thoughts?
Personal story: After unpacking from a recent family trip,
we were unable to locate our camera. This particular Cleary adventure had been
a mixture of both wonderful memories and broken dreams. Longer story short, our
camera was found in a parking lot, broken, but not crushed.
~We find this broken camera “picture” analogous to events
and relationships in so many of our lives.
Our camera, which had recorded pictures of all of our
precious memories, was nearly lost/destroyed. Yet, despite the odds, the camera
was both found and in tact enough to recover our good memories captured within
its images.
Over time, as we focused on these captured images of joy, we
healed and moved on from broken dream imagery, as God filled us with new dreams
of hope and purpose.
We found like Paul: “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.” Phil. 3:13-14
Our minds, like cameras, contain captured images. It’s a
matter of choice and discipline which images we choose to place our focus. Likened
to Samuel with God in 1 Sam. 15:35-16:1, there is a time to grieve/mourn
alongside God. ~Then, there comes a time to move on. In 1 Sam. 16:1, the mourning
period came to a close when God came to Samuel saying, “How long will you mourn?...Fill your horn (picture of authority) with
oil (picture of anointing) and be on your way to the place I am sending you.”
And God’s pattern is the same with His beloved today: there’s a time to mourn,
then a time to move on in our Eph. 1:10 promise, “We are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works,
which God prepared in advance for us to do.”
May we embrace all that He has for us in 2015 and refuse to
allow negative memories to permeate and control us. Amen.
Much love and hugs,
Shaun and Betsy
“We have not stopped
praying for you and asking God to fill you (“pleroo” meaning to be
totally controlled by) with the knowledge of His will through all spiritual
wisdom and understanding.”
Col. 1:9
