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“Brothers, I do not consider that I have made it my own. But one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead,”

Philippians 3:13

One of the things I love doing is photography. It’s an outlet for my creative juice—if you may. I enjoy taking photographs of people, food, and places. But there’s one photography technique that I’m particularly fond of, which is bokeh. This is a style of imaging where the background is completely blurry and unidentifiable, giving the subject that sharp, crystal clear focus. A photo in bokeh mode allows you to easily recognize what the photographer is trying to highlight because it’s super sharp and the rest of the image is fuzzy.

This is a graphic illustration of what Paul is communicating in today’s verse. Yesterday, we learned how complacency takes away our mind and body from our purpose. Today, we will put the spotlight on what we are to do to reach our goal. Paul presents two things.

First, he forgets the past. In previous verses, Paul listed several past achievements, which he now considers garbage. To him, clinging to these things will only cause him to slow down and be disengaged. He uses the analogy of an athlete to describe his point. In athletics, looking back is never an option because not only does it lower one’s chances of winning the race, but it also raises the risk of an accident. In a spiritual sense, if we allow our past successes or failures to influence our present, we lose sight of what’s ahead. Our goal is Christlikeness, and it is only achieved by looking forward to Christ.

Second, Paul points that instead of looking back, he sets his eyes on the future. He considers each day as an opportunity to strain and conform himself to Christ. The Holy Spirit’s work of sanctification (making us Christlike) is only possible if we get ourselves involved in the process. The reason why he was highly successful in the ministry (and the Christian life) is that he purposely left his life behind and never took his eyes off of Christ.

Countless things can cause us to lose focus: school, career, possessions, and sometimes, even our families can keep us from being transformed into the image of Jesus, who reminded us that anyone who looks back is not fit for His Kingdom (Luke 9:62).

Complacency is a serious problem; so is lack of focus. Therefore, we should not allow anything to come between us and God’s plan of making us more like Christ. In comparison, Jesus should be the only focus of our life; everything else should be that blurry, unrecognizable background.

Pursue the Saviour today!