Thoughts from Mark "Hat" Rackley

“If you want to be my disciple, you must, by comparison, hate everyone else—your father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters—yes, even your own life. Otherwise, you cannot be my disciple. And if you do not carry your own cross and follow me, you cannot be my disciple.
“But don’t begin until you count the cost. For who would begin construction of a building without first calculating the cost to see if there is enough money to finish it? Otherwise, you might complete only the foundation before running out of money, and then everyone would laugh at you. They would say, ‘There’s the person who started that building and couldn’t afford to finish it!’
“Or what king would go to war against another king without first sitting down with his counselors to discuss whether his army of 10,000 could defeat the 20,000 soldiers marching against him? And if he can’t, he will send a delegation to discuss terms of peace while the enemy is still far away. So you cannot become my disciple without giving up everything you own.

• Luke 14:26-33

“The Kingdom of Heaven is like a treasure that a man discovered hidden in a field. In his excitement, he hid it again and sold everything he owned to get enough money to buy the field.

• Matthew 13:44

Then, calling the crowd to join his disciples, he said, “If any of you wants to be my follower, you must give up your own way, take up your cross, and follow me. If you try to hang on to your life, you will lose it. But if you give up your life for my sake and for the sake of the Good News, you will save it. And what do you benefit if you gain the whole world but lose your own soul? Is anything worth more than your soul? If anyone is ashamed of me and my message in these adulterous and sinful days, the Son of Man will be ashamed of that person when he returns in the glory of his Father with the holy angels.”

• Mark 8:34-38

“All of me
Why not take all of me?
Can’t you see
I’m no good without you?
Take my lips
I want to lose them
Take my arms
I’ll never use them

Your goodbye left me with eyes that cry
How can I go on dear without you?
You took the part that once was my heart
So why not take all of me?

All of me
Why not take all of me?
Can’t you see
I’m no good without you?
Take my lips
I want to lose them
Take my arms
I’ll never use them

Your goodbye left me with eyes that cry
How can I go on dear without you?
You took the best
So why not take the rest?
Baby, take all of me”

• Seymour Simons and Gerald Marks, All of Me

I have sung this song while doing chores, driving down the road, waking up in the middle of the night with an earworm, etc.

I checked my records, and I cannot believe that I have not used this song before, but then, since my last song was something about a flaw in my flue, and maybe I have a flaw in my records, too.

The gift of salvation is free, but what happens next costs us everything.  But does it cost us anything that will be of value in the next life?  Nope, absolutely nothing.  As the Scriptures above state, especially from Mark 8, what benefits us to keep just a tiny piece of this world, if the result is the loss of our soul?

And here we have a song about one lover asking the counterpart to take all.

I want God to take all of me.  I am no good without Him.  Then the chorus is something that does not apply, but maybe the disciples, the eleven, might have felt that way.  Jesus ascended about 40 days after the resurrection, but then Pentecost was ten days later.  Yet, I think the disciples had hope during those ten days.  The Holy Spirit was not guiding them yet, but they did as Jesus told them to do.

But once God is within us, He will not leave us.  If we feel like God has left us, what did we do wrong for that to happen?  That feeling does not leave us unless we have purposefully drifted away from God.  Some sparkly things from this world got our attention.

But for all the fanfare, there is only one verse, repeated.  But do we need the rest.

Jesus, you took my heart, so why not take all of me.

Here is Frank Sinatra singing All of Me.

But what about something newer, different, a little more upbeat?  Here is Highline Vocal Jazz singing All of Me. And is this common in New York City to record a capella music on the sidewalk? Other than one woman holding a phone, everyone else just walks by.

I like them both.

Soli Deo Gloria.  Only to God be the Glory.