John was a friend who lived on the hall of my freshman dorm in college. A track athlete in high school, John had not been offered a scholarship but just “walked on” the track team at Arkansas State University. Although he was a good high jumper, there were others who were better.
One of the things I took with me to college was an 8mm movie camera and projector. One spring Sunday, a bunch of us went to the track to run, jump, and generally make fools of ourselves. I decided to start filming John as he practiced the high jump. After I mailed the film off to be developed and it came back, we watched John and his high jumps on a white sheet we hung on my dorm room wall. My projector had a feature that allowed me to advance the film frame-by-frame. We went over John’s high jump moves multiple times, ever so slowly, and identified a couple of things he could do to improve his jump. A day or so later, I remember the smile on his face when he came back to tell us that he had just exceeded his personal best by a couple of inches! It was all because we helped John take a closer look at his jump and make a few adjustments. And then suddenly he was jumping better!
Writing to his friends in Philippi, Paul encourages them—and us—not to spend time focused on the past but to press on toward the future they—and we—can find in Jesus. Just like my friend John who focused on doing a couple of things differently to become better at the high jump, Paul encourages us to look forward, not back, and press on to a new “personal best” for Jesus.