Philippians 3:13b-14

Peter Goodwin was a horse lover. He was once given the opportunity to select a colt from a large herd of two-year-olds.  Peter chose an ordinary looking colt named Bluegrass, in whom no one else saw much potential. "He will never run in the Kentucky Derby," his friends laughingly told Peter. But they were wrong. Bluegrass not only ran in the Kentucky Derby, he won it!  When Peter was asked why he chosen that particular colt, he replied, “Bluegrass had the look of eagles in his eyes."

"The look of eagles..." I wonder if St. Paul had the look of eagles in his eyes?  Here was a man who was converted to the faith after being one of its most intense persecutors. Here was a man who spent much of his ministry in chains as a prisoner.  Here was a man who had an affliction which some scholars think was poor eyesight and others epilepsy, but which he called simply, "his thorn in the flesh."  And yet in spite of all the strikes against him, St. Paul is arguably the second most important man who ever lived: second only to Jesus. 

What was his secret?  What was it that put the "look of eagles" in Paul's eyes? Verses 13 and 14 from our 2^nd lesson sum up his approach to life. St. Paul writes, "But this 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 heavenly call of God in Christ Jesus."

Our first clue is found in the first phrase: "BUT ONE THING I DO..." Not many things, but one thing!

In her book A PRACTICAL GUIDE TO PRAYER, Dorothy Haskins tells about a noted concert violinist who was asked the secret of her mastery of the violin. The woman answered the question with two words: "Planned neglect." Then she explained. "There were many things that used to demand my time. When I went to my room after breakfast, I made my bed, straightened the room, dusted, and did whatever seemed necessary.  When I finished my work, I turned to my violin practice. That system prevented me from accomplishing what I should on the violin. So I reversed things. I deliberately planned to neglect everything else until my practice period was complete.  And that program of planned neglect is the secret of my success." 

Most of us would not need much encouragement to neglect housework, but here is a secret to joy-filled life. You can't do everything! Most of us need to focus on a few things that really matter and excel in those. Or as one writer put it, "The main thing is to keep the main thing the main thing." "But one thing I do…" writes St. Paul.

"But one thing I do, forgetting what lies behind . . ."  Here is the second key: "Forgetting what lies behind . . ."  PAUL KNEW HOW TO PUT THE PAST BEHIND HIM. Paul could have spent his time doing what many of us do. He could have spent his time and his energy beating up on himself. After all, he had persecuted the followers of Jesus.  He was there when Stephen was stoned and he did nothing to intervene.  St. Paul had much to regret.  As do most of us.

How many of you have ever heard of Betty Nesmith? Betty was a secretary in a Dallas bank, back in the days before personal computers. Betty ran across a problem that interested her. Wasn't there a better way to correct errors she made on her typewriter? 

Betty had some art experience and knew that artists often just painted over their errors. Maybe that would work for her too. So she concocted a fluid to paint over her typing errors. 

Soon all the secretaries in her building were using what she called "Mistake Out." Betty tried to sell the product idea to various companies including IBM, but they all turned her down. So Betty Nesmith's kitchen became her first manufacturing facility and she started selling her concoction renamed “Whiteout” on her own. A few short years later she sold her little enterprise to the Gillette Company for $47.5 million.     

Whiteout… a way to easily erase mistakes. Wouldn't it be great if there were Whiteout for the soul? Or for the more computer minded perhaps I should say, "wouldn't it be great if there were a delete key for the soul?" Far too many people are haunted by regrets over past hurts, past mistakes, past sins, past errors of judgment. We need to find the courage to seek counseling, talk to a pastor or whatever else it takes to quit living as a victim of the past. 

"But one thing I do," writes St. Paul, "Forgetting what lies behind . . ."  Paul knew that the past is past. It no longer exists except in our memories. St. Paul knew that Jesus had taken even the darkest of his sins and whited them out. Christ has taken all the stupid things any of us have ever thought or said or done,           and pressed the delete key for all eternity. 

"But one thing I do," Paul said, "Forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead . . ." Here is the third thing Paul did: HE EXPECTED A VICTORIOUS FUTURE.  "Straining forward to what lies ahead . . ."  I believe that the ultimate reason Paul could let go of the past was that his eyes were unwaveringly fixed on Jesus' victory over sin and death. 

Business consultants sometimes use the phrase, FEED FORWARD.  Think about that word for a moment:  Feed forward as opposed to the more familiar FEEDBACK.  If you're running a business, feedback means when something goes wrong, you pick up the signal that all's not well, and you do something about it. And that is good. 

However there is a problem if you limit yourself to making decisions based solely on feedback. Feedback is always reactive rather than proactive. Wouldn’t it be much better to try and anticipate customer’s needs and problems rather than always responding after the fact.  Feed forward is much more timely and effective than feedback.

Watch a fast-moving tennis match. Great players do not wait until their opponent hits the ball to decide where they should be on the court. They anticipate where the ball will probably be hit, and commit themselves to that part of the court.  Feed forward.  Not always possible in tennis, or business, or life, but a very worthy goal.

Paul writes, "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 heavenly call of God in Jesus." St. Paul lived in constant anticipation of what God had done, was doing and was yet to do. We could say he was living on feed forward. Paul is not being pulled back by his past, but rather leaning forward toward a promised future.

We often say about life that we are the product of our heredity and our environment.  But why can't we be the product of our hope? Why can't we be the product of our faith?  That's feed forward.  

Author Irving Stone spent a lifetime studying greatness, and then writing novelized biographies of such men as Michelangelo and Vincent van Gogh. Stone was once asked if he had found a thread that runs through the lives of exceptional people. 

He responded, "I write about people who sometime in their life have a vision or dream… and they go to work. They are beaten over the head, knocked down, and for years they often get nowhere. But every time they're knocked down they stand back up. 

He could have been talking about St. Paul. Paul was able to focus on the one thing in his life that really mattered: the love and mission of Jesus Christ. He was able to let go of a past that might have weighed him down.  He was able to live in anticipation of certain future victory.  He was pulled by feed forward.  Those are lessons for all of us.