There is one body and one Spirit, just as you were called to the one hope of your calling, one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is above all and through all and in all.
(Ephesians 4.4 NRSV)
Author Irving Stone has spent a lifetime studying greatness, writing novelized biographies of such men as Michelangelo, Vincent van Gogh, Sigmund Freud and Charles Darwin. Stone was once asked if he had found a thread that runs through the lives of all these exceptional people. He said, "I write about people who sometime in their life . . . have a vision or dream of something that should be accomplished . . . and they go to work. They are beaten over the head, knocked down, vilified and for years they get nowhere. But every time they're knocked down they stand up. You cannot destroy these people. And at the end of their lives they've accomplished some modest part of what they set out to do."

He could have been talking about St. Paul. Paul was able to focus on the one thing in his life that really mattered his high calling in Jesus Christ. He was able to let go of excess baggage from the past that might have weighed him down. He was able to live in anticipation of Christ's future victory. Thus, he pressed onward and upward to his high calling in Jesus Christ. Those are lessons for all of us. Focus on the things that really matter. Let go of the past. Expect good things from God in the future. Press onward and upward, serving God all your days.

Dear Jesus, help me to press onward and upward to my calling in Christ. Amen.

Ron Newhouse

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