Philippians 3:12-20

Pressing on Toward the Goal

12Not 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. 13Brothers, 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, 14I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.

15All of us who are mature should take such a view of things. And if on some point you think differently, that too God will make clear to you. 16Only let us live up to what we have already attained.

17Join with others in following my example, brothers, and take note of those who live according to the pattern we gave you. 18For, as I have often told you before and now say again even with tears, many live as enemies of the cross of Christ. 19Their destiny is destruction, their god is their stomach, and their glory is in their shame. Their mind is on earthly things. 20But our citizenship is in heaven. And we eagerly await a Savior from there, the Lord Jesus Christ, 21who, by the power that enables him to bring everything under his control, will transform our lowly bodies so that they will be like his glorious body.

My HS Bible study class has actually already studied this a long time ago. My life has been a little crazy and it's been difficult to sit down and blog on this. You might say that this is a great verse for me to review. Paul is like a great coach or team mate on the sidelines during a race at a spring track meet. He reminds us to follow his example, and use what we've learned from him. He admits that he's not "all that" or anything, but that he just hangs in there and keeps chugging along.

Here's what may just be the most important part- just keep going. Don' t look back, don't look down, keep your eyes on the prize. I think that that means that we shouldn't feel sorry for ourselves. We shouldn't become paralyzed by dwelling on our past mistakes, our sins, or problems, what we think is wrong with us- instead, we should keep our heads up and keep focusing on Jesus, and keep moving forward.

As one of my favorite cartoon characters, Dory, from "Finding Nemo" likes to say:

Hey Mr Grump Gills
You know what you gotta do when life gets you down?
Just keep swimming
Just keep swimming
Just keep swimming swimming swimming
What do we do we swim, swim, swim
OH HO HO How I love to swim
When you WAAAAAANNTTT to swim you want to swim
Just keep swimming
Just keep swimming
Just keep swimming swimming swimming
What do we do we swim, swim, swim