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Brothers, I do not consider that I have made it my own. But one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.
Philippians 3:13-14
Reflect
I used to watch a lot more NASCAR racing than I do now, but I still enjoy watching a race from time to time. The raw speed with which these drivers travel over hundreds of miles is simply amazing. We may think that our commute to work in the morning is a challenge, but for a NASCAR driver, their “rush hour” is simply a day at the office.
My favorite driver of all time is Jeff Gordon, who raced more than 800 times in his career and won 93 of those races. Jeff was one of the all-time best, navigating tight traffic just inches from other drivers traveling at the same speed—often upwards of 180 mph and sometimes as high as 200 mph.
But a driver can’t successfully run a race by constantly looking in the rearview mirror. He needs to know what is behind him, but his attention has to remain on the track ahead.
Paul understood that principle long before anyone ever climbed into a race car. Earlier in Philippians 3, he lists the things from his past that once gave him confidence—his heritage, religious credentials, zeal and obedience to the law. But compared with knowing Christ, Paul says those accomplishments are worthless.
Paul also knew he hadn’t reached the finish line. He wasn’t perfect, and his past wasn’t perfect either. But he refused to live looking backward. He wrote that he was “forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead.”
That doesn’t mean Paul literally forgot his past. He talked about it often. It means that neither his former successes nor his former failures were going to determine where he went next.
The same is true for us. Yesterday’s victories can’t carry today’s faith, and yesterday’s failures don’t have to control today’s direction.
There is another important part of Paul’s message. He didn’t press forward so that Christ might accept him. Just before these verses, Paul says he presses on because “Christ Jesus has made me his own.” Grace came first. Paul was already Christ’s, and because he belonged to Christ, he wanted his life to continue moving toward Him.
In the midst of life’s race, we will encounter traffic, wrong turns and moments when the pace becomes frightening. There may even be times when we are tempted to spend too much time staring at what happened behind us.
But Christ calls us forward.
We don’t run to earn His love. We run because He has already claimed us as His own. So we keep our eyes ahead, pressing toward the goal and trusting the One who called us to the race in the first place.
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Reflection copyright © 2026 Doug DeBolt and Charles Fulton..
