Monthly Column

“We live by faith, not by sight.” 2 Corinthians  5:7

It was not until I was at the seminary that I first heard about the hymn I Walk in Danger All the Way. It was in a sermon preached by the now sainted Robert Preus. It was one of his favorites. And it truly is a wonderful hymn.

But up until that time in my life, I had never heard of it. Never sung it. Over 1600 church services. Over 900 chapel services at three different institutions. Not once.

Found on page 716 in our hymnals, the hymn has 6 stanzas. The first stanza begins with the title, which of course, is almost always true: “I walk in danger all the way.” There the reference is to our lives here on earth. They are not lived in ultimate safety, but in danger. Always danger.

The second stanza asserts: “I pass through trials all the way,” and that is true, too, isn’t it? Yes, we pass through trials. Our lives are not trials in and of themselves. But they consist of experiencing one trial, coming out of it, enjoying a time of peace and rest, and then experiencing another, then another. Only a fool, really, would suggest that it is otherwise.

Stanza three really hits hard: “And death pursues me all the way,” and that simply is the case. For that is the issue of the present moment isn’t it? That people all over the world have become aware of the fact that they are indeed pursued by death? Constantly?

And they can do nothing about it…except, hoard toilet paper. Yes. That’s right.  It was asserted this week that toilet paper was being hoarded because a large supply in an individual household provided comfort, comfort that everything would be okay. In the words of the author of the piece I read, whenever she opened her closet door and saw all of the toilet paper stacked-up there, she was assured that she would survive. She would not die. But live.

Toilet paper does that? Really? How utterly lost is the world.

For stanza five of the hymn gives us the only and real solution to our having to walk in danger, pass through trials and be pursued by death throughout our lives: We “walk with Jesus all the way.” That is, we live by faith, and not by sight, faith that the suffering and death of Christ for us, means that we are ultimately and utterly safe in His hands, come what may–danger, trials or even death.

Through faith in Christ death is simply a sleep from which we awaken in heaven and keep on living! That is, by the way, the final stanza of the hymn: “My walk is heav’nward all the way.”

Yes, we have heard this our entire lives, that we live by faith. But have we ever really listened? Ever really lived by faith, not allowing what we see all around us to overwhelm us with terror?

Our life is a walking by faith, with Jesus, towards heaven.