Submitted by Pastor Julie Sanders,

Tarkio and Westboro United Methodist Churches

As the New Year arrives, “let us leave the past behind and strain forward to what is ahead.” Phil 3:13b.

For many of us, the New Year marks the beginning of a future filled with promise and hope. It’s a brand new year that is filled with possibility for what is to come. As we think of the New Year, many of us take a moment to look back over the past years, taking time to remember the great moments and even the not so great moments.

These not so great moments can be helpful, especially when considering what we don’t want in the coming year; those often become our New Year’s resolutions. For others of us, these moments can become cages that restrain the gifts that God has given us, causing us to miss out on all that God has in store for our lives. A great example of this is a circus elephant. If you have ever been to a circus, you have probably seen the huge elephants chained to a peg in the ground. Maybe you too, have noticed that the elephant could easily pull the peg out of the ground and escape. The thing is, he doesn’t try. He doesn’t try because as a baby elephant he was tied to a huge stake; a stake that he could not pull out of the ground. Weeks of pulling, tugging and fighting did nothing. So finally, he gave up. Now that he is full-grown, he could easily pull the peg out of the ground with his great strength. But he only remembers all his previous attempts of pulling, tugging and fighting that did nothing. He is conditioned to failure.

Paul does not want us to be conditioned to failure; instead, he tells us to strive to live in the freedom that Christ has given us. Maybe we, too, have had our share of pulling, tugging and fighting that did nothing. But could we be full-grown now, content with a life chained around a peg in the ground? Paul wants us to strive to the future, the future that God has in store for us. He doesn’t want us to get hung up on the past, but instead he challenges us to boldly live for tomorrow. So, as we look to the New Year of 2020, let’s strain towards the future that God has set before us.