Straining Forward

The Scripture has words within it that speak directly to the heart.  There are words that are clear and impossible to misunderstand.  Their meaning is clear.  The Scripture is also a book filled with images which speak surely if not directly.  The images are bearers of truth which require not just a reading, but some pondering.  While some of the words blow us over, the images of the Scripture are more likely to wash over us with a soft and gentle stirring of the heart.  

They come to us in a way that invites us to sit with them and become a part of them.  The images left for us in the Word by the Spirit invite us to be soaked more than shaken.  They invite us to walk slowly into truths not yet seen.  I was reminded of this as one of the images of the Apostle Paul came to mind this evening.  In Philippians 3:13, he wrote about "...straining forward to what lies ahead."  Is this not a word which speaks of Abraham as he left the land he knew as home?  Is it not a word which fits Moses as he led the Hebrews out of Pharaoh's grasp? Is it not a word which describes Peter, James, and John as they moved from being fishermen, to disciples, to Apostles, to missionaries?  

Is not this "straining forward to what lies ahead" what we are all about as followers of Jesus?  We know not what is ahead.  We only know Who is ahead.  As one set on going after Jesus, we are constantly looking in the way He is going for it is the way He is leading us.  Long ago many of us heard and sang that gospel song which said, "Where He leads me I will follow..."  Like Abraham and all the others who came after him, we knew not where His leading was going to take us, but we were bent on following and getting there.  And so, we strain forward to whatever lies ahead.