My dad used to say, “The past has passed. Your present is God’s present.” We need to look to the opportunities we’ve been given and stop harping on things we cannot change. Brothers and sisters, 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, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus. (Philippians 3:13-14) The Apostle Paul writes to the church in Philippi about an enormous opportunity many of the believers were missing out on because they failed to see what God was doing right now. They loved the fact that God had done things in the past. In fact, they loved the fact they achieved things on their own. They would tell stories of their glory, of how things used to be. Then they would beat up on people who did not achieve that way. They would demean those who had no legs to stand on because they weren’t afforded those opportunities. Yes, they played the role of accuser– not willing to accept people into their camp unless they came perfect. They forget and don’t realize that they were never perfect themselves. They have been blinded by their own stomachs, because they yearned for the taste of glory. Lets reflect within ourselves now. I’m pretty sure none of you demean people by way of belittling other people’s struggles in light of your own glory. But I am pretty sure, because we’re all faithful Christians, that we demean people and belittle our brothers and sisters with the cunning use of “humble bragging.” Yes, I know it. We take pride in our humility and hold to it as something we earned, like a badge of honor. However, this is exactly what Paul was talking about. No, not the humility, but the humble brag, and the joy of being righteous rule followers. We need to forget about the past (I’m not saying that we shouldn’t celebrate victories, or learn from our mistakes). In effect, we cannot live and die with what we did and how we did it. That does not work anymore. We don’t live in that time period right now. At the same time, we are being called to become more and more like Jesus. He is giving us a fantastic prize, but we have to strive towards it right now. That is the gift we work towards. The reason my dad used to say, “The past has passed. Your present is God’s present,” was precisely because he used to beat himself up for his mistakes and excessively celebrate his victories; all of which left him unable to perform his duties before God right now, when it matters. We can’t get stuck in the past, it has passed. Take God’s present of the present and push forward into God’s power and glory.