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First Page

60

Last Page

69

Abstract

As a minister of the Gospel, I have often reflected on the tension between Paul’s counsel in Philippians 3:13, 14 (forgetting those things that are behind, I press toward the mark) and Ellen G. White’s (1902) counsel that “we have nothing to fear for the future, except as we shall forget the way the Lord has led us, and his teaching in our past history” (p. 196). On the one hand it seems that we should forget the past, while on the other hand we are advised to remember our past and the way the Lord has led us in order to have nothing to fear in our future. In this article, I will look back to my past while also looking forward into my present and future. Using “Sankofa,” the Ghanaian proverbial bird, as a metaphor, I will share several life experiences. Sankofa is expressed in the Akan language as “se wo were fi na wosan kofa a yenki.” Literally translated, it means “it is not taboo to go back and fetch what you forgot” (“Meaning of the Symbolism of the Sankofa Bird,” n.d.).

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