Higher Ground

When our team meets with the Ghanaian staff, we sing hymns. It’s great fun. Hymns are good stuff. I should listen to them more often. Here, we even have the pleasure of learning new hymns from the Ghanaians. One hymn that we’ve sung a few times since we’ve been here is “Higher Ground.” Last week, it resonated with me, and it’s been stuck in my head since then.

I’m pressing on the upward way,
New heights I’m gaining every day;
Still praying as I’m onward bound,
“Lord, plant my feet on higher ground.”

Refrain:
Lord, lift me up and let me stand,
By faith, on Heaven’s tableland,
A higher plane than I have found;
Lord, plant my feet on higher ground.

My heart has no desire to stay
Where doubts arise and fears dismay;
Though some may dwell where those abound,
My prayer, my aim, is higher ground.

I want to live above the world,
Though Satan’s darts at me are hurled;
For faith has caught the joyful sound,
The song of saints on higher ground.

I want to scale the utmost height
And catch a gleam of glory bright;
But still I’ll pray till heav’n I’ve found,
“Lord, plant my feet on higher ground.”

 

When I looked at these words last week, I realized that this hasn’t been my song to the Lord. If we’re honest I’ve been avoiding higher ground. And if you know me well, it makes sense; I hate heights. Higher ground is very intimidating and stressful for me in the physical sense. It’s also a struggle in the spiritual sense.  “Pressing on the upward way” is difficult. It requires determination. It requires a trust that the destination is worth all the effort. I lack the determination to press on toward higher ground because I struggle with believing the destination will be enjoyable. I’d rather stay at the bottom of the mountain, the lower ground, and enjoy what I’ve always known. 

The writer of the hymn cries out for a higher plane than the one he has always known. He wants more of God. His “heart has no desire to stay where doubts arise and fears dismay.” This lower ground is the place where doubts arise and fears dismay. It’s not the higher ground, the challenging place, but it’s the place where we can so quickly agree to settle. If we’re honest, I’ve been dwelling in that place where doubts arise and fears dismay. I have been in the lower ground and have even been longing for nothing other than that lower ground.

It’s just that the higher ground is unknown, and that’s scary. “The utmost height” is less than desirable at first glance. I’m not an adventure-seeker. I’d rather not “scale the utmost height.” And so naturally, I haven’t. But I’m realizing that I’ve been missing out. The higher ground isn’t really the frightening unknown. The higher ground is the dwelling place of the Lord. Only when we seek the higher ground, do we “catch a gleam of glory bright.” Whoa. Crap. I’ve been willing to settle for my own foolish comforts rather than seeking to the higher ground on which I can experience the fullness of God.

So even though I don’t know where the higher ground physically leads, I trust that the growth from the journey is worth it. Higher ground could be Ghana for more than these next 8 months, or South America, Asia, Sioux Falls, Detroit, anywhere. And it really doesn’t matter where it is geographically. All that matters is that it’s the place where I can further understand the glory of God, the place where I can grow to know him more than I do here and now.

Even though heights will terrify me until the new creation, I’m choosing to press on the upward way and cry out to the Lord asking him to plant my feet on higher ground. What plane are you searching for? What are you asking the Lord for?