Getting Out of the Gutter

There I was in the middle of the uber-storm last week here in Pennsylvania standing on a patio chair cleaning out a gutter. It was 12:30 in the morning.

Water was incrementally pouring into the garage. I peered out the glass pane back door and grasped that the cascading waterfall was in the wrong place. It should be at the end of the gutter and not the middle. Further it should be going out a downspout and not the gutter itself. Instead, it was spattering off the patio in gobs and some of it was sneaking under the door.

I surmised that the gutter was clogged with leaves and so it was. Soon, I had it free and flowing. The past can also seep steadily into our present. While not always a bad occurrence, more often I find myself thinking and being affected by some negative dead leave memories in the gutter of my mind. I am not sure how clean my mind...I wish it was as easy as climbing a patio chair and scooping. Yet, what we think about is a choice. We diminish the power of our actual thoughts and instead resort to tricks and formulas to restore the spiritual flow.

In commenting on Philippians 3:13

"Brothers, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead"

The Commentator Barnes notes, "This does not mean that he (Paul) would not have regarded a proper contemplation of the past life as useful and profitable for a Christian (compare the notes at Ephesians 2:11), but that he would not allow any reference to the past to interfere with the one great effort to win the prize. It may be, and is, profitable for a Christian to look over the past mercies of God to his soul, in order to awaken emotions of gratitude in the heart, and to think of his shortcomings and errors, to produce penitence and humility. But none of these things should be allowed for one moment to divert the mind from the purpose to win the incorruptible crown. And it may be remarked in general, that a Christian will make more rapid advances in piety by looking forward than by looking backward. "

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