Wasted Time

Any Iron Maiden fans out there?! Probably not if you are a regular reader of this Blog. However there may be a few closet Maiden fans out there. If you have followed my blogging for a while you know that I grew up in the 80's. I started high school in 81 and graduated college in 90 so it was a good decade for me. Music has been and still is a big influence on people. As a matter of fact one of my most read Blogs is Home Sweet Home based on the Motley Crue song.

I was riding home from work yesterday and was listening to one of my favorite rock stations (yes, I do listen to Christian music also) and they played Iron Maiden's song Wasted Years. For the longest time I never really payed that much attention to the lyrics but for some reason they captured my attention yesterday. Look at what the chorus says:

So understand
Don't waste your time always searching for
those wasted years
Face up... make your stand
And realize you're living in the golden years

As I read this I immediately thought of the words of the Apostle Paul:

Philippians 3: 12-14 - 12 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. 13 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, 14 I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.

Forgetting what is behind. That statement is so easy to say but so hard to do! How many of us get so hung up on our past? How many of us are dragging around the heavy baggage of past sins and past failures? Iron Maiden's chorus says "Don't waste your time always searching for those wasted years" the apostle Paul says "Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead". Forget it! You are wasting time dwelling on your past failures. If you have repented and asked for forgiveness you have got to move on. Maiden says "Face up... make your stand And realize you're living in the golden years" Paul says "I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus." There is so much to do for the Kingdom. There are so many opportunities to share the love of Christ with a dying world. There is someone who needs to be discipled! I believe this is what Paul was speaking of when he talked about pressing on toward the goal to win the prize. These truly are the golden years of sharing the Gospel and making disciples of all nations.

I am not sure what Adrian Smith was thinking of when he penned the lyrics of Wasted Years and I have no idea what you think about when you reflect on your past but I do know that there is hope for all of us in Christ.

II Corinthians 5: 17 - Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!

Imagine what our world would look like if we all stopped wasting our time dwelling on the past and invested that time in living out the Gospel. The enemy loves to distract us from doing what we have been called to do. Don't let the past failures distract you from the present mission.