I'm either hot or cold. Lukewarm is not in my vocabulary. I'm either all in or not in at all. This fall I will have been teaching for 47 years. I can tell you, I am more passionate about the classroom than ever. This November I will have been blogging for 20 years. I can honestly say that I love blogging more today than when I first started. I have been surfing for 62 years, running for 7, mountaineering for 6. Have I lost my passion? Not on your life.
"All in" means you accept every aspect of your life as a gift from your loving heavenly Father. It means you go through this life being yourself, but your best self. It means what Jim Elliot meant when he said, "Wherever you are, be all there." It means what John Newton meant when he wrote:
I'm not what I ought to be. I'm not what I want to be. I'm not what I hope to be in another world. But I'm not what I used to be. By the grace of God I am what I am.
It means what Paul meant when he said, "For me, to go living is Christ." 63 years ago I began my life with Christ. It was as though life began all over again. Since my conversion, there has never been a day when I have not lived in his presence. To all of his followers, Jesus gives his all-sufficient grace that is made perfect in our own weakness. If Christ were to be removed from our lives, there would be nothing left.
For Paul, each day's journey was one step closer to Home. But until then, his desire was to be ever willing and ever able to help and serve others. If we can learn to live like that, we will set such an example that unbelievers will be revolted with their way of life and will seek to possess what we possess.