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Don't Look Back

I remember watching a Florida Gators football game on TV when I was a child, and the running back broke through the line and was headed for the end zone. He blew right through the defense, and there was no one in between him and six points. As he was sprinting forward one of the defenders was closing the gap. My dad began to yell at the television (because that's what we do when we watch sports), "Don't look back! Don't look back! Don't look back!"

Sure enough, the ball carrier looked over his shoulder to see where the defensive player was, and he stumbled ever so slightly, allowing himself to be tackled just shy of scoring a touchdown. 

There is no reason for a player to look back. He had already passed everyone, so he only needed to worry about what was in front of him. Paul used a similar analogy in his instructions to the church at Philippi. In Philippians 3:13-14 he spoke about someone running a race: "...But one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus."

Just like an athlete, we need to keep our eyes straight ahead, focused on the finished line, not any other runners in the race. Wherever your eyes go, your body will follow. If we are too concerned with the past, we will turn our heads 180 degrees, and then start going backwards. 

Each person's past has some good and bad in it. We have former successes and failures, and it is not healthy to try to live in either past situation. Paul said to forget the past, a verb that means to neglect. We have to determine to keep the past behind us, and then press on, straining forward. 

We need to give the race of life everything we've got until we cross that finish line, but we cannot achieve that goal if we are looking backwards. So please let me share with you the same advice my dad shouted at our TV, "Don't look back." 

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