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The Pursuit of Happiness Daily Devotional -44

by David Joynt on February 15, 2021


PHILIPPIANS 3:13 | 13 Beloved, I do not consider that I have made it my own; but this one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead.

Now this verse can be deceptive. Paul does not want us to have spiritual amnesia. He often refers, appreciatively and critically, to his own past, and to the past of his congregants. His racing metaphor does not ask for that kind of forgetfulness. Instead it emphasizes the reality of a race—we run faster forward than backward. No one runs ahead and stares behind. Usefulness depends on meeting today’s challenges, today. Growth aims forward and sets goals and discerns direction. Sometimes we meet the challenge using insight from the past, of course. But leaning on experience, we still point towards service and fruitfulness in the here and now.

Are you nostalgic or present tense?

 

Tags: direction, discern

About the Author
David Joynt

Dave Joynt began his service as a pastor at Valley Presbyterian Church in Paradise Valley, Arizona in September 2014. This meant a move away from the Northeast, where he has a long history, growing up in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania and then serving congregations in Delaware and New Jersey for a total of 23 years.

Dave was nurtured in a great church in Bethlehem where his parents, Anne and Carey, served as elders. He graduated in classics from Lehigh University where his Father taught, and then from Oxford, where he met his wife Julia. Ordained in 1988, he completed a Ph.D. from Princeton Theological Seminary in 1993.

He and Julia have a son, Tristan, and a daughter, Madeleine.

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