Where To Look?

"I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of sharing in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, and so, somehow, to attain to the resurrection from the dead. Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already been made perfect, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me. 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, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus." Philippians 3:10-14

I love to go camping. I'm not talking about the giant motor home-with-all-the-gadgets type of camping, I'm talking about a tent, campfire, and sleeping bag type of camping. I was thinking about this earlier today. I'm not sure why, it's kind of chilly today and the day after tomorrow will be November, but I was just thinking about how I want to go camping but can't right now.

But I probably will be able to next summer.

Yup, that's right, hopefully next summer I'll be bale to do something I haven't done in years because it's been too hard to. I haven't been able to go camping in the last several years because I was worried about my ankles letting me get up off the ground, I've been worried it'll be too uncomfortable and I've been pretty tied to my CPAP machine. I did camp a bit the summers of 2006 and 2007 at Soulfest in New Hampshire and I loved it. I don't know why, but I think things taste good when cooked over an open fire or on a Coleman stove.

Being able to look past what's going on right now has been key in having such a positive attitude as I've gone through my amputation and as I sit at home with no way of getting myself around. That's not going to last forever, I will be able to get out and do things eventually. And that eventually is getting closer and closer. I'm only a couple of weeks away of getting measured for my temporary prosthesis, and about a month away from actually receiving it and being able to learn to walk with it. I can't tell you how excited I will be on that day, when I can walk out to my car, get into it and drive myself somewhere, hopefully to a school where I'll be ministering at with Coastlands Consultants. 

The verse I shared at the beginning of this entry speaks to this, I think. Look ahead, look to the prize. Later in that same chapter (Philippians 3)  Paul writes "...let us live up to what we have already attained" and "But our citizenship is in Heaven. And we eagerly await a savior from there, the Lord Jesus Christ," Look past what you're going through, you will get through it. Look to the future, when you can use it to minister to someone goig through something similar, or the same. Look to when you can see how God brought you through it.

But if you'll be looking for me, I'll be the one in the tent, or maybe the one cooking over the fire.