“…but this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before” (Philippians 3:13). It is hard to throw away things of the past.

I remember when I had to load up my personal clothes, I said I would never keep unneeded clothes again. But just a year later, I still had too many clothes; and now they rot in boxes. Still too many rotten rags; what cost so much to buy, but so fast became useless. What seemed so important then has come now to only be a dream. And I can’t even remember what many of the clothes look like. I guess what I am asking is:

“Why do we all love our expensive, too small, outdated, useless junk?”

“Why do we want to hold on to our things of the past?”

Well don’t feel bad, we are all in that same shape. It would be so much easier to be like Abraham, a stranger and a pilgrim; just passing through; unshackled, unburdened from the material things of this life. But our clothes, our things, are part of our past, part of our image, and part of what we would like others to think of us. Never thinking that what is really important is what Christ thinks of us and not so much what people think of us.

I have come to this conclusion: we all are carrying too many weights; and then we wonder why we can’t run the race and be winners.

“…let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us” (Hebrews 12:1)

What we need to do is get rid of the junk in our life and hold on to the gold. If we could only lose our Status Image and take on the Savior’s Image. But to do that, we must let go of this world and its pull on us; we must take up His cross and follow Him. But the reaction to this is very severe from our flesh, our self, our own goals. It totally destroys what we want and causes us to turn to Christ and become His disciple (Luke 14:26-33).

But without the Power of Christ, we don’t ever change. Sometimes we want to, but the cost is too great. So we shrink back into the shadows of self, and trudge along with the heavy weights of the flesh; never experiencing the freedom that we can have in Christ. We never really taste of the abundant life, but only the mediocre life.

Why do we, as children of God, allow our lives to be regulated by others (who don’t even care about us) and even by our own flesh (which has been crucified in Christ)? Why do we yield to the demands of our flesh, as if it controlled us or had power over us?

Why do we want less than God’s best? Why do we knock ourselves out to stay as Wilderness Dwellers, when Canaan Land has been given to us as our inheritance; the land of Power, Peace, Righteousness, and Joy of the Holy Ghost?

Why do we want to stay second-class citizens, when we could occupy first-class status in His Kingdom?

Why? Why? Why?

The answer is really very simple: we are being deceived by sin for a season, and we refuse to face it and admit it. The truth of the matter is: we just like second best. God help us!

“Lord, lighten our load and set us free; let us soar higher than we have ever flown before. Lord show us the way to the winner’s circle and give us the power to press toward the mark for the Prize of the High Calling of God in Jesus Christ. Amen and Amen!”

“God, bless all of us on this journey; for we only come this way one time.”

Don’t look around, it’s too scary. But look to Jesus, the Anchor of our soul.