The poem tells of a person who looks back on footprints in the sand. The footprints tell of a walk with Jesus. Usually two sets of footprints move side by side. But at one point, which the narrator remembers as a particularly hard time, there is only one set. The narrator asks Jesus, “Did you leave me by myself through that hard part? Is that why there is only one set of footprints?” Jesus replies, “There is only one set of footprints at that point because that’s when I carried you.”

“Footprints” is an encouraging word to people going through hard times. It is true to the words of Jesus who promised, “I will never fail you or forsake you.” I really liked that poem -- about the first twenty or so times I heard it. I still like the message.

But being carried isn’t the whole of our Christian walk. We are also called to grow to maturity in Christ. That’s why I also appreciate an alternate version to “Footprints” by an anonymous Australian.

“One night I had a wondrous dream;

One set of footprints there was seen.

The footprints of my precious Lord,

But mine were not along the shore.

But then some stranger prints appeared,

I asked the Lord, ‘What have we here?’

‘Those prints are large and round and neat,

But Lord, they are too big for feet.’

‘My child,’ He said in somber tones,

‘For miles I carried you alone,

I challenged you to walk in faith,

But you refused and made Me wait.

You disobeyed, you would not grow,

The walk-of-faith you would not know.

So I got tired and fed up,

And there I dropped you on your butt,

Because in life there comes a time,

When one must fight and one must climb,

When one must rise and take a stand,

Or leave their butt prints in the sand.’”

That may not bring a tear to your eye. But it hopefully makes you think. God’s Word calls to live in a way that shows who we are and Whose we are. Paul writes, “I urge you to walk in a way that is worthy of the calling to which you have been called.”

Salvation is a free gift. But the salvation we receive by the grace of Jesus is not an end in itself. It is meant to result in attitude and action. Paul reminds us in Ephesians 2:6-7 that we are saved by grace through faith -- for good works. We don’t earn God’s love by the way we live. But we do demonstrate our thankfulness by the way we live.

When you understand that God has loved you and has given His Son for you — when you realize that God has made you His own daughter or son — when you catch even a brief glimpse of God’s wonder — then you become concerned about whether your behavior reflects God’s grace. You ask what others will think of God when they are watching you. That leads to a life worthy of the Lord or a walk worthy of your calling. You are a child of God and you live like one.

In Colossians 1:10 Paul first writes that we are to “walk in a way that is worthy of our Lord -- and seek to please Him in every respect.” Paul says that the chief aim of every believer ought to be that he or she seeks to live in a way that delights and pleases God.

Now I have to confess here that my first reaction when I read this verse was negative. Pleasing someone in every respect is hard. I once had a boss who was not pleased no matter what I did. If I performed in an exceptional way, it was just an excuse to rise the performance bar — to make the exceptionally wonderful performance the new minimum. The rules kept changing. Maybe you have had the same experience. All that was with a human being. If I have to do that with God, I’m sunk. If the measure if a life that pleases God in all respects is sinless perfection, then I will just fold up my tents right now and steal away into the desert. I’ve already flunked Colossians 1:10.

But Paul isn’t talking here about perfection. He knows we never outgrow our need for grace. He is talking about our affections — what we deeply desire. He is talking about our direction — what we truly seek. He is talking about our disposition — the set of our wills.

Think about it. What is the quality of life that most pleases to God?

The Bible says it is faith. Hebrews 11 says this in a negative way: “without faith it is impossible to please God.”

Faith. Every time Jesus — God in the flesh — commended people it was because of faith. “You have great faith,” He said to a woman who pled with Him to heal her flow of blood. “Your faith is great,” He said to a centurion who asked Jesus to heal his servant. Whenever our Lord commends anyone for anything it is because they believe Him and act on what He says. They aren’t perfect but they do trust.

In the same way, the people listed in Hebrews 11 — the roll call of faith — were by no means perfect. Some were extremely sinful. But they also knew how to trust when the chips were down.

Real trust is the main thing that pleases God. But far too many Christians try to get by with a selective Lordship. We sing, “I surrender all” but we live ‘I surrender some.” And God knows if we are holding on to all the important things for ourselves.

Are you hanging onto your business, your finances, your love life, your entertainment, that wrong relationship, or that sinful attitude or way of doing things? What part or parts of you life can’t Jesus have? Why? Because you love that more than you love Jesus? Because you don’t think you can trust Him with the stuff that really matters -- that you can’t trust the God who gave His life for you?

Right before Easter we looked at what Jesus says in John 15 -- the promise that if we abide in Him and He in us, that we will bear fruit in our lives. The act of abiding is faith. The result is fruitfulness. That’s the same thing as Paul says next in verse 10 -- “bearing fruit in every good work.” For fruit bearing is the natural outcome of walking with Jesus — if we are really walking and not always being carried.

I believe that when Paul writes here about “every good work” and “bearing fruit,” he is primarily thinking of the church’s missionary task. This is because in several places Paul talks about the “work” of his evangelistic service and preaching. In Romans 1:13, he uses the metaphor of “fruit bearing” to refer to the people who come to faith through the sharing of the good news. Despite their newness in the faith and their internal problems, the Colossians are called to be a part of this work of outreach. We are too. We aren’t to be ingrown.

We are called to bear fruit. And, as we help others come to life, we will grow ourselves. Paul says it this way at the end of verse 10: “Increasing in the knowledge of God.”

This isn’t the knowledge that comes from contemplation. Contemplation by itself can result in correct opinions — but without any real impact on our own life or the lives of others. The knowledge Paul calls for here is the knowledge that comes from walking and fruit bearing — from spending time in the trenches with God. We read the Bible, not primarily for factual information, but to discern the heart of God. We look for direction, not mere information. We are careful to make sure we are seeking truth and not just seeking ammunition to defend our own opinions. We humbly want to learn anything we can that will help us know the One we love better.

Don’t settle. Too many Christians do. They go so far in their relationship with God — but then go no further.

Sometimes we settle for being Sunday morning Christians. Our commitment to Christ makes a difference while we are here but the rest of the week goes on as it always has. But I want to encourage you — don’t settle for that. It’s boring.

Knowing God is the most exciting thing that can happen to you. Knowing God is the secret of excitement and vitality in life. People who know God are never bored for the opposite of knowing God is boredom. If you are bored as a Christian, it is because you have not come to know your God in the way He wants to be known. God is an exciting, captivating being who is filled with fresh ideas, concepts and possibilities you never could have dreamed of yourself.

To know God means that you are always turned on about everything. This is because you see God everywhere: in nature in people you meet, in trials, hardships and challenges -- everywhere. That is why people who really know God are exciting to be with. This is what Jesus means when He says to the woman at the well in John 4, “I will put in you a well of water springing up to eternal life.”

But the good news as we seek to walk, bear fruit and grow in knowledge is that we are not expected to do this on our own. God will meet us on the path. And God will give us the help we need in abundance. Yes, He will make us walk. But as we walk, He will super-energize our legs.

Now take a look at the first part of verse 11. Paul says there that as we walk, bear fruit and grow, that we will “be strengthened with all might according to His glorious power.”

“Strength, might. power” — Paul really pours on the adjectives here. He uses even more over in Ephesians 1:19, a similar passage, where he talks about the “exceeding greatness of God’s power toward us who believe, according to the working of His mighty power.”

There’s a little phrase that pops up in both Colossians 1:11 and Ephesians 1:19. That phrase is “according to” — “according to His glorious power” and “according to the working of His mighty power.”

That phrase, “according to,” is very important. It tells us just how much God is willing to give us.

You might think of it this way. Suppose you are up in Seattle near the headquarters for Microsoft. You park your car to go into Starbucks — only to discover that you don’t have change for the parking meter. You have a prepaid card for coffee but you can’t feed the meter. Then suppose that Bill Gates himself comes walking along the street. He pauses, sees your problem, and reaches into his pocket. He pulls out a quarter and puts it in the meter.

What just happened? Well Bill Gates has just given to you out of his fortune. He now has a quarter less than he had when he met you. That was a nice thing to do. But you would not say that Bill Gates gave according to his fortune. To give “according to” something means that you give in relationship to the whole thing. If Bill Gates gave to you according to his fortune, he would buy you the Starbucks, the street and a new car.

Well Paul doesn’t say that God strengthens us “out of His glorious power.” He says that God strengthens us “according to His glorious power.” God gives to us in proper relationship to all that He has. That’s a lot of power.

I read one writer who reflected on this promise of power and commented, “The reason I lived for so long without realizing the power of the Holy Spirit is that I was attempting only those things which I could do easily in my own strength. One day a friend asked what I was doing that only God’s power could accomplish. I was alarmed to discover that my life was limited, cautious and fearful.”

It is certainly true that we need to attempt some things around here as a congregation that require much more than just good human management. We tend to have good human management as a church. We are strong in this area. But we need more than that. We need to attempt things that actually require faith — like our new building program.

But at the same time, Paul says that God’s power isn’t just meant to give us the ability to achieve externals like buildings — as important as they are. God’s power is also meant to help as achieve internals. In fact, that’s where Paul takes us next in the second part of verse 11: “strengthened with all might according to His glorious power -- for all patience and longsuffering with joy.” God’s power isn’t shown in how high you jump when you “get religion.” It is shown is how straight you walk once you hit the ground.

Paul uses two words here. The first word is the Greek hypomouen. It is translated as patience or endurance. It is the capacity to see things through. It is the ability to deal with hard situations.

Some years ago I read about a professional baseball player named Del Crandall who was a believer. One day a sports reporter asked if his Christian faith made any difference to how he played baseball. Crandall said, “No, I don’t think I bat or field better because I’m a believer. But that’s not the whole story. At home I have a two year old son who was born profoundly retarded. That is where Christ has made all the difference.”

This brother has learned hypomouen — the capacity to see things through. It is the ability to deal with hard situations.

The second word Paul uses is the Greek makrothymian. This is the spirit that does nor retaliate even when it suffers insult and injury.

The first word Paul uses refers to patience in situations. But this second word is patience applied to relationships with other people. For the Spirit gives us the capacity to relate to other people — even the real annoying ones — with the long endurance of God.

Both endurance with people and patience with circumstances grow from our experience of God’s gracious love. It is when we realize He has forgiven us, that we can forgive. It is when we see people and situations from God’s perspective that we can trust God and love people as they are.

Endurance was one of the qualities that was highly esteemed by the Stoic philosophers of the Greco-Roman world. But Paul now adds another quality that was not so characteristic of Stoicism — joyfulness. A Stoic may have born the discomfort calmly and without complaint. But he would not have spent his time singing praises to God as Paul and His friend Silas did in the prison at Phillipi.

It the New Testament, joy is constantly linked with hardship. In fact, joy is love growing in the soil of difficulties and suffering. Joy, chara in Greek comes from grace which is charis. For when we know that we are loved and cherished by God, joy floods our emotions. Joy is far superior to happiness which depends on circumstances and people.

Years ago I read of a Christian businessman who had a cleaning woman named Sophie. He said to her one day, “Sophie, why are you so cheerful? You don’t have much in life but you’re always cheerful. What’s your secret?” She replied, “Well, its the way I read my Bible.” He said, “I read the Bible too, but I don’t find myself being cheerful like you are.” She said, “You don’t read it right. My Bible says, ‘Glory in tribulations.’ G-l-o-r-y doesn’t spell ‘growl.’ That’s what you do. You growl in tribulation. If you gloried in it, then you’d find yourself looking at it as a challenge, as an opportunity for your Lord to display what He can do, and you’d be cheerful about it.”

There is great wisdom in her answer. It is what will reveal that we are growing in the knowledge of God. We need to grow.

“Because in life there comes a time,

When one must fight and one must climb,

When one must rise and take a stand,

Or leave their butt prints in the sand.”

In other words, it’s not enough to talk the talk. We need to walk the walk. We need this to be our prayer: “Make me, O Lord, victorious over every circumstance; make me patient with every person; and give me the joy which no circumstance and no person will ever take from me.”