The passenger tapped the cab driver on the shoulder to ask him something. The driver screamed, lost control of the car, nearly hit a bus, went up on the sidewalk, and stopped inches from a department store window. For a second everything went quiet in the cab, then the driver said, “Look mister, don’t ever do that again. You scared me half to death!” The passenger apologized and said he didn’t realize that a little tap could scare him so much. The driver replied, “You’re right. I’m sorry. Really, it’s not your fault. Today is my first day as a cab driver. I’ve been driving a hearse for 25 years.”
The cabbie allowed his past experiences to cause him to take his eye off of the road and his goal of getting his passenger to his destination.
Sometimes we allow our past to affect our present and future goals and destinations also. The apostle Paul told the Philippian brethren: “Not that I have already attained, or am already perfected; but I press on, that I may lay hold of that for which Christ Jesus has also laid hold of me. 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, I press toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus” (Philippians 3:12-14).
When we find our past affecting our lives in a negative way, we need to learn how to forget those things.
We especially need to forget those things which keep us from focusing on our goal of heaven.
When we have people in our lives who are causing us to take our eyes off of our goal of heaven, we need to forget them.
When our guilt from former sins, which have been forgiven, causes us to take our eyes off of our goal of heaven, we need to forget them.
When temptations to sin lead us astray from our goal of heaven, we need to forget them.
We need not to allow anything in our past to take our focus off of heaven.
If then you were raised with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ is, sitting at the right hand of God. Set your mind on things above, not on things on the earth. For you died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ who is our life appears, then you also will appear with Him in glory” (Colossians 3:1-4).