“From Here to There”

December 5

Philippians 3:13-14 ”Forgetting what is behind and reaching forward to what is ahead, I pursue as my goal the prize promised by God’s heavenly call in Christ Jesus.”

For years there was a most interesting sign near the exit to my hometown in McAlester, Oklahoma.  The green and white highway sign simply stated “Houston – Straight ahead”.  The sign was not untrue, Houston was straight ahead but it was about seven hours ahead with a lot of territory to pass before you would ever arrive in Houston.  I was so used to seeing the sign that I never really thought about it but as Bill began to travel this route, he would always point out how ridiculous it was – it could just as easily have read “South America Straight ahead”.  I still don’t know why the sign was placed at the exit for so many years.  It really didn’t make any sense at all!

Sometimes we go on about our lives without really knowing why we are doing things the way we do.  Just like the sign we are so used to our habits and attitudes, we haven’t even considered why.  While it may be true, our lives don’t make a lot of sense.

Paul reminds us in Philippians that we are to forget what is behind (the things that are baggage, weighting us down with senselessness) and reach forward to what’s ahead.  Even though we know that our ultimate destination is eternity in heaven (not to be confused with Houston), there are events, experiences, and excursions along the way before we before we get there.  As we go about these places, we always keep our destination, our goal in mind. 

What is your goal for this Christmas?  Many times we have the mind-set “December 26 – Straight ahead.”  Just get to the destination, don’t think too much about the places or people along the way.  It may be time to re-think our traditions and our rituals.  Some may need to be left behind while we reach out in new and different ways to those in our family and along our way.  By the way, after many years of directing traffic past McAlester on to Houston, the sign was taken down.  I often wonder what precipitated the change.  Regardless of the reason, it is gone.  Maybe it was moved to some place closer to Houston.