11.1- Objects in Mirror
11.1-
Objects
in Mirror Philippians
3:7-14 Adam Holz
“Must. Go. Faster.” That’s what Dr. Ian
Malcolm, played by Jeff Goldblum, says in an iconic scene from the 1993 movie Jurassic Park as he and two other
characters flee in a Jeep from a rampaging tyrannosaurus. When the driver looks
in the rearview mirror, he sees the raging reptile’s jaw—right above the words:
“OBJECTS IN MIRROR MAY BE CLOSER THAN THEY APPEAR.”
The scene is a masterful combination of
intensity and grim humor. But sometimes the “monsters” from our past feel like
they’ll never stop pursuing us. We look in the “mirror” of our lives and see
mistakes looming right there, threatening to consume us with guilt or shame.
The apostle Paul understood the past’s
potentially paralyzing power. He’d spent years trying to live perfectly apart
from Jesus, and even persecuted Christians (Philippians 3:1-9). Regret over his
past could easily have crippled him.
But Paul found such beauty and power in
his relationship with Jesus that he was compelled to let go of his old life
(verses 3:8-9). That freed him to look forward in faith instead of backward in
fear or regret: “One thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward
what is ahead, I press on toward the goal” (verses 3:13-14).
Our
redemption in Jesus has freed us to live for Him. We don’t have to let “objects
in (our) mirror” dictate our direction as we continue forward.
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