Living Forward Not Backwards

I am a prison guard for the state of Illinois, and last week I learned that walking violent inmates backwards disorientates the inmate. You see instead of thinking about how or when to do the next violent act it forces them to focus on walking backwards not on violence. I have thought about this allot in the last week. What came to mind was Philippians 3:13 Brethren, I do not count myself to have apprehended; but one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forward to those things which are ahead, 14 I press toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.

So many times we as Christians spend most of our Christian lives moving forward while walking backwards. We walk in an disoriented state. We focus on our failures, we focus on past sins, and most of all we spend so much time worrying about things we cannot change. Instead of reaching our full potential in Christ. We must realize that those things in the past is history and we cannot change it. What has been done cannot be undone.  So as Paul said, we must leave the past in the past, and move forward toward the calling that Jesus has on our lives.

I believe that every if every Christian (most of all myself) would just realize that we cannot let the past dictate our future but allow today to determine the outcome of our future. Just as today's newspaper, it might be today's news but tomorrow's trash. Lets stop moving forward by walking backwards and start living today that we may obtain our prize of the upward calling of God in Christ Jesus. So as I walk forward I pray that I will continue to walk toward the high calling of Jesus, by Staring At Lines.