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The last few weeks has seen a wild fluctuation in the Stock Market. Ups and downs, ups and downs are the way it’s gone. I’m sure there are issues on which this wild fluctuation is based, but some days it seems as if a strange melding of fear, rumor, and hope collide and out pops the market trend. Of course this trend rises and falls, up and down, several times in the same half day. Of course this is nothing new. Except for long bull markets, or those dreaded and stubborn bear markets, up and down is the way it is supposed to go. “Look at the long term trends, not the smaller ups and downs in the market,” investors are told.

    But it’s not just the Stock Market. Look at emotions or performance or weather and the list could go on and on! Oscillation, ups and downs, that’s the way life goes! Except...

    ...for Christians. Remember how the song Higher Ground says it:

I’m pressing on the upward way,
New heights I’m gaining ev’ry day;
Still praying as I onward bound,
“Lord plant my feet on higher ground.”
(Words by John Oatman, 1898.)

“Lord plant my feet on higher ground.”

    Don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying that there won’t be some tough days for Christians. Our hero was murdered by a lynch mob of angry and jealous religious enemies. Most of his earliest and handpicked leaders were martyred. Even today, the many of the Lord’s most devoted followers live in difficult economic situations in third world countries. But there is a fundamental difference in our difficulties. They are leading us on to higher ground!

    From the moment that we were first baptized, we were raised with Christ through our “faith in the power of God who raised Christ from the dead” (Colossians 2:12). So we “set our hearts on things above” because our “life is now hidden with Christ in God” (Colossians 3:1-3). As we journey onward and upward, we do so knowing that one day, when Christ appears, we “also will appear with him in glory” (Colossians 3:4).

    We’re journeying to the high country! We walk with the Lord of the universe as he leads on toward the rarified air of heavenly glory. Each day as we journey, we watch our glorious Savior and find ourselves transformed to be more like him because of the transformational power of his Holy Spirit (2 Corinthians 3:18). We lay aside the things of the past and press on to the great prize that awaits (Philippians 3:13-14) so that when our end does come, we can say with confidence:

I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith. Now there is in store for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will award to me on that day — and not only to me, but also to all who have longed for his appearing. (2 Timothy 4:7-8)