All the Way, Lord! All the Way!

“I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus”

Philippians 3:14

Sitting at my maternal grandmother’s funeral a few days before Thanksgiving 2003, I found myself taking an attention break from the Homegoing service to engage in a private discourse with the Lord. I looked at the preacher, the choir, the white casket crowned with an assortment of beautiful pink flowers, stained glass windows, red carpet, some strangers sitting upfront to my left and then to my family. I began wondering what happens to the soul that has lived but has never held hands and danced with their divine purpose. As humans, we spend a lifetime embracing and rejecting so many people, places, things and ideas.

I sat there thinking: What happens when your spirit returns to God and the power point of your life is displayed on the screen of heaven and slide after slide is absent of purpose, only some good deeds and some routine legalism and some high applauding moments of reward. Slide after slide revealing the good that negated the Greatness God placed inside of you. Checklist after checklist, resolution after resolution, social engagement after social engagement, friend after friend, party after party, class after class, ministry service after ministry service, excuse after excuse and compromise after compromise; idol after idol and Anointing pimp after Anointing pimp…a vicious cycle so busy; so exhausting and yet so empty. Great training but to what end?

Speaking of training my mind goes back to the years I served in the United States Army. One of the most powerfully motivating phrases I heard and said was “All the way, Sergeant/Sir, All the way!” It means I understand this mission and I accept my duty assignment and the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory that shall be revealed in me. Oh yes, we did have some serious church in the military! I think we were a little more cognizant of death than most people. The cadence to a two-mile or four-mile run went like this:

“Double-time! Double-time! March! March! Here we go. Here we go. All the way! All the way! All the way! All the way! One mile, One mile, No sweat, No sweat, Two miles, Two Miles, Better yet! Better yet! Can’t Quit! Can’t quit! I Gotta go, I gotta go, All the way! All the way! I can take it! I can take it! I can make it! I can make it! All the way! All the way!”

Before we knew it the run was over and we felt like we could walk on water. We understood that our lives were not our own and we also knew that if we ignored our calling and if we misinterpreted our mission many others would suffer and die.

And so it is with our calling on earth. The high calling of our lives comes from Jesus Christ. We will not all have the same calling nor the same measures of service but it is all a High Calling because it comes straight from God! The call comes from Heaven and leads us through a life’s journey to obtain the prize, Heaven. It’s not about us. Our job as believers is to stay focused on Him. That’s why we preach Jesus and not ourselves. The word said that we will find Him when we search for Him with all our heart. It begins with a submitted heart. Your heart has to be surrendered first because the mind is subject to change at any speculation of discomfort, pain or challenge. It starts when you are on your knees crying out before the Lord and you are caught between a “Yea God (Yes Lord) and a God help me!” These are the times of dying to yourself and to your will so He can pour His will into you. It’s when you don’t know what to pray for and you are honest with the Lord about it and the spirit begins to give you the utterance, the things you need to pray for in order to fulfill your place in God. Oswald Chambers said, “The measure of the worth of our public activity for God is the private profound communion we have with Him.”

Today, I beseech you to go all the way with the Lord. As the song says, make a decision, draw the line and tell yourself no turning back. Stay focused. Guard what the Lord has begun in you knowing that He will complete it. It will save you and many others. Who shall ascend into the hill of the Lord? Or who shall stand in his holy place? He that hath clean hands and a pure heart; who hath not lifted up his soul unto vanity, nor sworn deceitfully. He shall receive the blessing from the Lord, and righteousness from the God of his salvation. This is the generation of them that seek him, that seek thy face, O Jacob. Selah. Lift up your heads, Oh ye gates; and be ye lifted up, ye everlasting doors; and the King of glory shall come in. Who is the King of glory? The Lord strong and mighty, the Lord mighty in battle. Lift up your heads, Oh ye gates; even lift them up, ye everlasting doors; and the King of glory shall come in. Who is this King of glory? The Lord of host, he is the King of glory. Selah. (Ps. 24: 3-10) Lift your hands and say “All the way Lord! All the way!”