Connie and I were newly-weds. We were journeying to Illinois to visit her Great-Grandparents for their 70th Anniversary Celebration. They lived in a little town named Keenes.
Keenes is one of those infamous “blink your eyes and you miss it” towns. It had a post-office, but to my metropolitan Southern California eyes, it looked like a one-man security guard hut. There were, maybe, two houses besides the Great-Grandparents that I could see and the whole place was grown over by knee-deep grass.
Then the day arrived and the celebration began. Out of nowhere came about 100 people. A band showed up and we suddenly had a back-hills hoedown going on. I was flabbergasted. Where did all these people come from? How come a band showed up – uninvited and unknown? And they were good, too, very young, but very good!
As things calmed down in the afternoon, Connie and I were asked to sing a song. I think that was my Mother-in-Law’s doing. She was always asking us to sing. It was kind of a thing in her family. It seemed that at all family “get-togethers” (holidays, etc.), we were asked to sing. Not just us, but all the cousins were asked. It was a little strange to me – it wasn’t part of what my family did.
But, Connie’s Mom liked to hear us sing. One song in particular, she would ask for us to sing. Every time we came back home to visit from wherever we were pastoring at the moment, we were asked to sing (at Mom’s request) the song “I’ve Been to Calvary.”
When we were new in ministry, I enjoyed singing that song for it expressed some of my cherished sentiments as a Christian. As the years went by and we had served in many different locations, I became more uncomfortable singing the song.
You see, the lyrics of “I’ve Been to Calvary” starts with these words: “I’ve never traveled far around the world. I’ve never seen the many thrills and sights unfurled.” Well, that wasn’t true anymore. We had lived in several different States, including Alaska. We had visited different countries from South America and Europe. We had seen some of those famous sights around the world. It didn’t seem right to sing those words, even though Connie’s Mom continued to request it of us.
However, I could still deeply identify with the ultimate sentiment of the song.” But I have taken the journey of journeys for me, up Calvary’s Mountain, my Savior to see.” That is still the most important journey I have ever taken, the one to the foot of the cross. To lay my burdens down, to ask for and receive forgiveness for those sins, and to be given a new life – a life in Christ – is the greatest journey.
Yes, I have now had the privilege of seeing several places and sights around the world. But as the Apostle Paul says in Philippians 3:7-9a (CEV), “But Christ has shown me that what I once thought was valuable is worthless. Nothing is as wonderful as knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. I have given up everything else and count it all as garbage. All I want is Christ and to know that I belong to him.”
Yes, I’ve been to Calvary, what a thrill of love divine. Just to think, just to feel, just to know that the Savior is mine. I wish that journey for you as well.
Just a Thought
