Dr. Martha J. Ross-Rodgers is an inspirational author and motivational speaker. A native of Memphis, Tennessee, Ross-Rodgers was a stutterer. She became a teenaged mother. She dropped out of school. However, she went back to school and graduated. Then, she went to college and got her BS in Sociology from Florida Southern College, followed by an MA in Education with a focus on Curriculum and Instruction from the University of Phoenix, and her Ed.D/ET in Educational Leadership with a specialization in Educational Technology. In 1977, she married Reggie Rodgers and together, they have two children.
If that’s not enough, she became co-owner of Jireh Publications in 1998 and she founded Rodgers’ Banana Pudding Sauce, a specialty food manufacturing company in 2008. All of that is important to know because Ross-Rodgers is also responsible for creating today’s National Day Calendar celebration. This is National Toss Away the “Could Haves” and “Should Haves” Day.
In other words, it’s time to get out from under regret.
Ross-Rodgers had a lot to regret. Some who read this devotional today have more. There are things we say we could have or should have done and maybe, just maybe things would be different. However, there is usually no undoing the past. Most of the mistakes we’ve made cannot be undone. Should we live in misery and regret?
That’s not the way Paul would see it!
If anyone had a reason to live in the land of regrets, it was Paul. Imagine seeing another Christian on the streets of some city who is maimed, hobbling, and scarred because he had been hauled into jail for being a Christian. While there, the person was grossly tortured, leaving them damaged and nearly unrecognizable. Who would sign an order for such a heinous act against this man?
Look very carefully at the document. It says, “Saul of Tarsus, Pharisee.” It even has his seal and signet mark. Did a tear trickle down Paul’s cheek? Did his heart nearly burst from his chest? Regret.
Here was Paul’s solution recorded in Philippians 3:12-13. “Not as though I had already
attained, either were already perfect: but I follow after, if that I may apprehend that for which also I am apprehended of Christ Jesus. (13) Brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended: but this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before…”
Paul isn’t the same man as he was when he was Saul of Tarsus. Jesus changed him. Can he undo those past actions? Of course not. So, rather than live in a regret that would surely debilitate and paralyze him, Paul says that he is going to “forget “ about it – he is going to give those memories over to oblivion – and he is going to live forward.
I can’t change yesterday but I can choose how I live today and the days to come. A decision must be made that I am and I will be different for the Lord. Paul concludes his new plan and mission with a passion that we need to have and develop in our own lives. Let’s put Philippians 3:14 into action today.
“I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.”
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