“I’m not giving up. I’ll keep holding on.” So goes the lyrics of a popular Southern Gospel song. A lot of folks feel a real affinity with those thoughts. Holding on. Waiting for tomorrow. Looking toward the future with less thought of today and little of yesterday. What is past is done. What is now is rapidly becoming past. And what is going to be is yet to be seen. It is not that we are accepting an inevitable unchangeable predetermined future; although there is a measure of understanding in knowing that the Lord has the future in His “right now” like we holding memories of what was. I have choices to make for what’s next. The lessons of Scripture teach us that whether we go to the left or the right the Lord is there. I like the other line in the lyrics just a bit better. “I’m not giving up. I’ll keep going on.”
Holding on is almost (at least in my mind) resignation. Kind of the “Que Sera, Sera” thing Doris Day sang about. It’s not a real, well thought out, decision processed, course of life. It is one that says I have no control, no input and little expectation of any ability to alter the outcome. God’s Word gives a different approach to the tomorrows we see. We choose. We choose life or death, strife or health, open truth or deceptive stealth. We choose. God does not just sit back and do a “Que Sera, Sera” thing either. His creation is not on autopilot. Neither does He force His will on us. The Word says that He is not willing that any should perish, but that all come to repentance. Yet not all are saved. Is His will ineffective? Absolutely not. His will is encased in His desire for His creation to be the extension of His love He planned.
Holding on is the last desperate act of an impossible situation with no options. Going on is the meandering through the choices which plants flowers in springtime and harvests food for the winter. Yes there are hurricanes. Some days are better than others. We climb more steps when we’re healthy. It is easy to criticize the choices of others when ours seem to have gone well. Going on means that it is possible to take a path where the Lord’s blessings and presence seems absent. It means recovering and going forward to the right choice which puts us back in the center of His will and desire. Some days we absolutely do keep holding on because it seems like that is all we can do. And when we do, His love puts in our path, a choice. We can continue to keep holding on or we can choose to change things up and start going on again.
In all of our choosing there are no surprises for the Lord. He knows our frame, our end from our beginning and which molecule of dust our body returns to. He knew those choices long before we knew there were any choices. There are of course some unalterable realities that no matter how convoluted our theology becomes, remain unchanged. One of my favorite sayings for many years has been that when we arrive in Heaven, one of the first things Jesus will say to us is, “You believed What?! Where did you get THAT theology from?” It’s not that I think everything I believe is messed up, It is just my acknowledgement that there must be some merit to the differing views of others. Without compromise are the base unchangeable truths. The death, burial and resurrection of the Lord Jesus the Christ; the Blood atonement and certainty of judgment; even the permanent eternal presence of the Holy Spirit in every true believer. These are undeniable teachings in God’s Holy Scriptures.
At least to me they are undeniable. Some hold on to differing views that keep them holding on to their own ability. Some even hold views which would take a whole lot more time and energy to review than I choose to expend today. So I choose to keep going on. The thing that I am holding on to is the understanding that the scars in His nail pierced hands, declare His love, my guilt and my freedom. SO, give some thought today to what you are holding on to. And to what you are going on to. Remember “I’m not giving up”. I’ve got choices to make so “I’ll keep going on”.