By Jared & Deb Ott
See this bag of trophies? It was one the curb for the garbage truck to pick up. My wife spotted it on a walk in our neighborhood. (no, we don’t know whose trophies they are) You rarely see someone tossing trophies to the curb. Usually they are put on display on prominent places. They are markers – success indicators – for a season of our life. We put them on the mantle or a display shelf, or even a whole room. It feels great to see the celebrations of success. What are trophies in your life? Letterman’s jacket, team jerseys, diplomas, collections, cars, children, status symbols can all be trophies.
Trophies in and of themselves are fine. However, sometimes we draw our identity from the trophies we have earned. Isn’t it interesting to note what we allow to shape our identities? Most of the time, it is our greatest accomplishments or our greatest failures that have the greatest influence on our identities. In doing this, we miss out on the bigger picture that God has for us. You are more than your accomplishments and failures when you are in the hands of the living God. He raised dead people back to life, so failures are never final in His hands. He took a kid’s simple lunch of loaves and fishes and multiplied it to feed multitudes, so your successes have infinite potential in his hands.
I don’t know what the story is with this bag of trophies, but I can tell you one thing with certainty: SOMEONE IS MOVING ON! Whoever threw out this bag of trophies was not staking their identity in these items. Our failures or accomplishments are merely points along the journey, not the end of the line. We are all a work in progress. Your past is simply your past. The question to ask today is, “God, what is next?” Appreciate the past, but plan to continue the journey each day. Whether a trophy or a failure, assume that God will bring purpose out of it and build on it for what lies ahead…
“Forgetting the past and straining toward what is ahead, I keep trying to reach the goal and get the prize for which God called me through Christ to the life above.” Philippians 3:13-14
#forgettingthepast #whatliesahead #workinprogress #thisjourneyisfarfromover #Godhastheroadmap #jesustakethewheel #trophytrash #moveon
