Growing? Keep growing. Not growing? Get growing. Grown? Nah.

A believer is always being called forward in growth...

I've said it often to myself: "Though I live on the coastline of the Sea of Regret, I refuse to sail." My failures and who I WAS lies ever near me; I haven't forgotten, neither those in distant years, nor those in recent moments, but I don't sit around looking back; I neither linger mentally nor long emotionally for those times. Sure, there's a confession to have about them, and a classroom to learn from them, but there's Christ calling me out of them. I may look upon those waters. I may remember those rough seas. I may recall days adrift. I am realistic about the dangers of the deep, but I don't go out upon those waters.

I've been called upward in Christ. I'm being called upward in Christ. I am moving forward. I am receiving Him, and He is God's riches. I know who He is shaping me into (Himself) and I am walking with Him in His linear, going-forward plan.

People tell you who you were so they can make you feel bad where you are. God calls you out of being who you were so He can form you into who you'll be.

God points out our sin but bids us come to the Savior. The enemy points out our sin and tells us we're hated by the Father. They have different goals. God points out our failure that we might learn from them and yearn for Him. The enemy points out our failure that we may become trapped by it, tangled in it and torn because of it.

We cannot pretend life has not happened, nor can we claim to be sinless, nor should be ignore failures, BUT in Christ, we SHALL NOT BE DEFINED by them!

"Brothers, I do not consider that I have made it my own. But one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead" (Philippians 3:13 ESV)