Something that is true about life is that we have days and weeks that are better than others, and years that are cherished more than others. The same can be said from my first 10 years involved in ministry within the local church. While, I am thankful for all the blessings and opportunities that God has given me within life, there are periods of time that are remembered and reflected on much more fondly than others.

A lesson learned from this is as follows: The glory days can never be relieved but they can be reflected upon and learned from. Some of my personal favorite moments within ministry are actually the days very early on, before I had a title attached to my role in ministry, or a degree in pastoral ministry. Titles and education are not bad things, but before finishing my time at Moody Bible Institute, my experience in ministry, along other peer volunteers, was rooted in a special and small community of young, like-minded, adults with a humble passion to serve our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.

While those are times that I remember with great fondness, and at times wish that things were as simple as they were in that era, there is nothing that I can do in order to be able to relieve those days. In fact, I don’t think God intends for us to be stuck in the past in any way, shape, or form. Instead, we have the blessing of being able to reflect on those days with the ability to learn from them and seek to accomplish the things that worked well, in different and better ways.

One of my favorite passages within scripture is Philippians 3:12–14 because of its challenge to continue to move forward in life, and not to get hung up on the successes or failures of the past. In 2018 the gospel is just as real and just as true as it was when Paul was writing to the Philippians circa 64 AD. Just as in our own lives the gospel, God, and the work of the Lord are just as important and impactful as it was, the day we first believed.

So, my challenge is this: do not get hung up on the past or wish for “the good-old days,” but rather cherish the blessed times that God has given you and seek to continue to faithfully minister for Christ each and every day. We tell our favorite stories over and over again about our own lives, but are we telling new stories? Are we continuing to allow God to challenge us within our ministries, large or small, that we can be optimistic about our best days being ahead of us, rather than behind us? The times that we have that are better than others, I believe, God has given us to remember our blessings, and with that we faithfully continue to serve with excitement about what blessings are going to come next.