"All Along The Way" is a song about our journey with God and how we can have hope and encouragement in that walk - in spite of the challenges we face. We must not forget that those difficulties often lead to significant breakthroughs, and Scripture is filled with those accounts: Joseph, Moses, Gideon, etc. One of those accounts is referenced in the second verse of the song: Peter stepped out of the boat and only began to sink when he started to look at the storm. Yes, he began to sink, and some view that as a failure, but he also became the first one (other than Jesus) to walk on water. Perhaps there are challenges you’re facing that seem to be insurmountable or impossible, but perhaps that is one of those divine set-ups where great things are about to break loose!
A personal note about this song: many years ago the worship leader at our church called me before Mother's Day and asked me to sing a song for the service that morning. I have written quite a few songs, but I’d never written one specifically for mothers. But “All Along the Way” came immediately to mind, so I sat down and rehearsed it to be fully prepared. I didn't know why this seemed to be the song to sing. On Mother's Day morning, I woke up and went in to rehearse it again. It dawned on me why I was singing this song for Mother's Day: the traits that are mentioned in this song are traits that I learned from my widowed mother. I sang it at her funeral in 2014. We miss her . . .
There’s also an interesting story attached to the picture used in the video. The picture is included in the CD insert, was on the early web site years ago, and I will share the story here:
The picture is that of me and our dog Molly, who was our first dog as a couple. In preparing art work for the debut CD years ago ["Inhabit My Praise"], my wife and I had taken many pictures for an idea that never quite flew. For quite some time, though, I thought a shot of walking up the country road that fronts our home might be nice. (I walk it almost daily with Molly for two reasons: to get our exercise, obviously, but more importantly for prayer.)
So one day my wife Catherine joined us on our walk, and we all set off down the road. About halfway down we stopped, and Molly and I proceeded to walk back up the hill. Catherine stayed behind with the camera, clicking away. But Molly resisted this new way of doing things almost immediately.
Catherine rarely goes on our walks, but when she does she always walks *with* us. I would like to ascribe Molly's attentiveness in the photo to how well she's trained, but frequently she has to be reminded not to walk too far ahead or lag too far behind. (She is also both squirrel- and rabbit-intolerant and engages in a chase occasionally.)
But in Molly's mind, leaving Catherine behind was certainly *not* the right thing to do. Why were we leaving her behind? It's not something we'd ever done before. Why were we doing it now? (Actually, it was probably something more like "She's back there; she's back there.") 😉
She's looking at me so attentively trying to figure out why I'm leading her up this hill in such unusual circumstances. And all the coaxing I could do didn't make any difference: she would not keep going. We gave up after a few shots, not really getting the picture that we’d hoped for, and she rushed back to see Catherine after such a traumatic separation from her beloved "Mrs."
We got the pictures back, and of all the ones we took, this one particularly struck Catherine's fancy, and I liked it, too. We decided to include it in the project simply because we liked it, and we didn't think much more about it.
But a few weeks later Molly and I are taking our walk again on that same road without Catherine, and I'm in prayer at about that same spot. I'm not sure exactly how it occurred -- perhaps I was wondering why this was happening or why that was happening -- but my mind was brought to that picture.
And I realized that I'm walking down a road, too, and sometimes some of the things He wants me to do just don't make any sense. And I question: Why are You doing it that way, Lord? You've never done it like that before. Why are You doing it that way now? And He coaxes and encourages me and tells me it's OK and everything will be fine -- just to trust Him.
But I don't always. And sometimes I stop, too, because I don't trust Him like I should, and I don't realize that if I just keep walking, pretty soon I'll reach the crest of the hill and have a whole new view -- and see another horizon. And then maybe I'll understand.
But even if Molly had trusted me enough to keep walking while we took those shots, she would have never known why we were doing something that seemed so strange to her.
And sometimes neither do we . . .
Know what He wants you to do. Trust Him enough to walk with Him.
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