I looked at my photo album the other day,
making a list of what to keep or throwaway,
and on page one - there was grandpa fighting in the war.
Him, Sergeant Vance and the boys of the Mighty 44.
So, I sat staring at that picture for a while,
all those boys with hollow eyes and slow sad smiles
who had seen things no man ought to ever see
while out on the fields of Danzig and of Normandy.
It was grandpa and them other boys - raised on a farm
who stood in the gap to save us all from certain harm
and gave their all so a failing world might see
what it means to stand for life and liberty.
Looking at that picture, I guess I wondered some
about my life and all the things that I have done.
And whether I would have answered the call they heard
and would have stood the same test of which they stood?
Because there’s a calling that comes to every life,
of whether to do wrong or to do what is right,
of whether I’ll stand straight or whether I’ll fall
when the voice comes for me to answer that call.
In Philippians 3:13 the apostle Paul writes, “This one thing [I do], forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forward to those things which are ahead, I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.”
Paul is doing all that he can to live out the high calling of Jesus. He wants to be a man of courage, integrity and honor. He wants to strengthen the weak and to lift up the downtrodden. He wants to save men and women from hollow lives of personal failing. He wants to be used by God to do some good thing while living this life on earth.
In the photo album, Paul is a hero. Who will I be? Who will you be? This year for the new year, let’s make it our resolution to find God’s purpose and live in it. Devotion writer Lisa Riggs writes, “At the threshold of this new year, let us ask the Lord for direction on what he wants us to do. Are we walking in a manner worthy of his calling?”
That’s the question - what will your answer be when the call comes to you?