Grace in Motion

Day by day

2006-04-04T05:58:00.000-07:00

There are times, like the past week for example, when it seems that all I can do is take life day by day. I have really been seeing clearly the meaning of Jesus' words of Matthew 6:34, "Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own." It seems like each day is a struggle to keep up with and no time to worry about tomorrow. I guess this comes down to the fact that we are broken people and sometimes we are much more in tune with our brokenness than other times. I feel as though I am very in tune with brokenness right now. In the past week I have been allowed to experience the hurt of people around me who are dealing with divorce, depression, suicide, feelings of worthlessness, illness, absolute lack of direction and separation from children. My heart is heavy for those around me as I struggle to make sense of this broken world. I think we are often fed the lie that when we are following God, life will make sense and we will be taken out of brokenness. Until Christ returns or we go to be with him, there will be hurt and suffering. I guess there is hope in this, because we are not alone in our pain. Our humanity implies that we will have heartache and we can rest in the knowledge that we will never experience a heartache that has not been felt by someone else (this is not to trivialize our pain, but to find hope that others know our pain). Jesus, himself, experienced all human heartache. His heart was broken time and time again for the pain of those around him. His compassion was so strong that he felt our hurt and took our suffering with him to the cross. I know these thoughts may sound simplistic, but I think my faith grows most from the simple truths. So as I continue to take life day by day, it is my prayer that God will continue to use this broken woman in the lives of the broken people around her.

Grace?

2006-03-20T11:57:00.000-08:00

Ok, so in our language we have this word called grace. What is this grace we are all so desperately seeking? First a definiton: Grace - God's favor; receiving what you have not merited; elegance. So doesn't grace by its mere definition require motion? God's favor comes to us from God, it is in motion toward us. In order to receive you must be in motion to accept. Elegance comes when we are in motion and move with a purpose.
I feel like I might be rambling, but I feel like all too often I take this concept of grace for granted and don't truly pause to discern what it is. We have so many expressions in our language, like "full of grace," "state of grace," "offering grace." We love the idea of grace, and we as humans seek it, we long for it. We inherently know that we need grace to get us through life. Jesus came to give that grace and to give it fully, but we so often discard that offer of grace and try to find it elsewhere. True grace comes from nowhere else. True grace requires sacrifice, a full sacrifice that was paid by Jesus on the cross. We can't expect to receive grace without sacrifice. Enough, those are thoughts for another day.

My first entry

2006-03-16T12:26:00.000-08:00

Ok, so I guess I am going to join the world of bloggers! I must admit I am a little nervous, but I hope at least my hsuband will want to read what I post. I hope this site will be a place where we can all experience Grace-in-motion as we learn about issues of God's kingdom and how to be the hands and feet of Christ here on earth.