I love grace. Seriously, I’m consistently astounded by the grace of God.
The thing about grace is that, if you ask 10 people what grace means, you’ll get 10 definitions for the word.
You might hear things like the following…
“God’s unmerited favor” “mercy bestowed” “divine pardon” “endowment of benefit” “bounty” “a gift” “bestow a blessing” and one of my favorites, “God’s ability in my inability”.
But, you know what? I’m a picture guy. I understand things better visually so I want to share a picture with you.
The other day, my seven year old son wanted to go for a bike ride. He saw his older brothers riding up and down the street and wanted to explore the neighborhood. I’ve tried many times to teach him how to ride but he just hasn’t gotten the hang of it. He was really upset with his limitation and was tired of just hanging around the house and yard.
I felt bad for him so I dug an old tandem bicycle out of the garage and told him to hop on. He loved it!He was free from the confines of his limitations, there was joy in his heart as we raced down the street, and he laughed with glee as we explored the neighborhood. It was a new sense of freedom for him and all he had to do was sit back and let me pedal and steer. What a deal!
That’s grace! We don’t deserve it, but Jesus paid our fine, set us free, and empowered us! All we have to do is… hop on.
What are some of your favorite definitions for grace?
Grace
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Last week, my six-year-old son got sick. More sick than I’ve ever seen any of my kids. For six days he would get extremely painful headaches and vomit everything he ate. I’m sure you could imagine how awful it is to watch the most energetic, fun, happy little boy become tired, dehydrated, and unable to play because of the pain he was in.
Our family physician was out of town so we took him to another doctor in the same office. She was absolutely no help what-so-ever. She ignored my wife’s concerns about the headaches and vomiting, made a crack about the fact that we home school, wrote him a prescription for an antibiotic, and sent him home without so much as a blood test.
The next day, he got so bad that we decided to take him to the emergency room. He was in extreme pain, was lethargic, and hadn’t been able to hold down any food or liquid. There he received great care from the hospital staff. They were very concerned about his condition and the looks on their faces made me realize this was more than simply an ear infection or the flu. They did a spinal tap to rule out meningitis and a CT scan to check for abnormalities in his brain. It was so difficult to see my little guy laying there with an IV, barely conscious from the powerful pain medication. We were scared!
So what does all of this have to do with the Body of Christ? They prayed. Our good friends at the Quad Cities Prayer Center sprang into action by notifying their network of hundreds of prayer warriors. Our small group leader came to the hospital to bring some balloons for Hudson. Our good friends watched our other two boys so that my wife and I could stay by our youngest’s side until he could go home. Friends called, texted, and Facebook messaged us to get updates and let us know they were praying.
It didn’t stop with people we know though. Great people from my Twitter community made it a point to re-tweet my situation to get more people interceding. They left me messages to let me know they were praying. These are people I’ve never met face to face, but care enough to take my cares to Jesus. AMAZING! I’m totally honored to belong to a Body like that, and extremely grateful for all of their prayers.
It doesn’t end with my son’s illness either. God has used His people to be there for us in so many ways and on so many occasions. Seven months ago, our ministry took an unexpected turn and, rather than running for security, we decided to take a step of faith and launch something new. Time after time He has used his people to bless us when we didn’t know how we’d make it another week. Even the computer I’m writing this post with was a blessing from a brother in Jesus.
It makes me think about the picture on this post. Life is such a challenge sometimes. We never know when we’re going to hit rapids, rocks, or other dangers as we navigate through it. It’s such a comfort to know that there are others in the boat with you and, as we paddle together, we can look out for each other, work together, and lend each other strength when we need it. What a great picture of the Body of Christ! (Romans 12:4-8)
As for my son, he’s home now and feeling much better. He has kept everything down for the last two days and the headaches are becoming less frequent and less severe. A little while ago I saw him dragging large sheets of cardboard up from the basement. He said he wants to turn his bedroom door into a drawbridge. I love that kid!
This year we decided to start a new family tradition. Like many families hit by economic downturn, we didn’t exactly have a ton of presents under the tree. That’s tough for a parent. We want to spoil our kids with all sorts of toys and goodies. Our three boys have been anticipating this day all year and we wanted to do it right.
Something struck me a few weeks ago, though. My work with WorldHope.us has been seriously educating me on what it means to not have much. I felt down about semi-empty stockings while people in my own community are sleeping under the bridge. And you know what? We have something so many don’t have: each other.
So, we decided to share each other this year at a local homeless shelter called King’s Harvest. In 2009, they served 27,000 meals to the poor and needy. Our objective was simply to go and be a blessing to someone during Christmas lunch. It turned out to be the best Christmas experience I’ve had in a long time.
There were so many volunteers there that they didn’t need us to serve so we found someone who was all alone and planted ourselves next to her. Her name was Shelby and she had no family. Her children all lived far away and she hasn’t heard from them in several years. Her only companion was a kitten, and he ate half of what little food she had. We had the great privilege of being her family for the next hour.
We learned that she’s lived in New Mexico, Colorado, Wisconsin, and Upper Michigan just like me. She was a Farah Faucet fan and she likes Lee Majors. She finds the mountains of Albuquerque beautiful and a spiritual experience to explore. As we shared stories, laughs, and observations, I couldn’t help but notice the gradual change in her countenance. Life begun to show in her eyes, she smiled more, and she became much more demonstrative.
At one point, a homeless woman stood at the front of the room and sang “Silent Night” with incredible passion and grace. The whole room erupted in applause and then we continued our conversation. Shelby told us how she’s been so lonely and depressed and what a gift it was to spend time with us. It lifted her spirits and blessed her heart. It was a blessing to me too! Thank you Shelby, for letting us be your family for an hour!
I have to admit, it was such a blessing to be a blessing. Acts 20:35 is SO TRUE! “It is more blessed to give than to receive.“ I’ll treasure the experience (and keep going back to help some more) far longer than any of my Christmas presents will last and my boys are learning the value of giving of themselves to bless others.
So what? I’m learning that no matter how little we have, we still have enough to bless those with less. What an incredible lesson!
Merry Christmas!!
Cole, Forrest, and Hudson with their new friend Shelby
We’re doing Advent again this year and I really love it! After dinner each night, we take about five minutes out to light the candle, read the scripture, and talk about our Savior’s birth. If you’ve ever thought about introducing family devotion, then Advent is the perfect introduction. Besides, family traditions are important and this is a great one to add to the list.
This year, my youngest son wants to do everything. He lights the candle (with a little help) and often volunteers to read.
That’s it! Forgive me for my self indulgence but I’m as proud as can be of my boy. He reads Isaiah like an old pro! Enjoy the video!
We decided to visit my parents for Thanksgiving this year. Something we haven’t done for years. It’s fun to have everyone pile into the folks house, raid the cupboards, lay around, and laugh about whatever. For some reason, it’s actually easy to forget about all stress and responsibility of ministry, bills, and business while I’m here.
This morning I woke up to the smell of a very large turkey in the oven and the mere smell of that bird cooking made me feel grateful. We’ve had a tradition of sharing what we’re thankful for around the table for so long that all it takes is the aroma to stir up a sense of gratitude in me. Take that Pavlov!
The thing about thankfulness is that it’s so good for you! When we’re really grateful, it’s hard to stay proud because it acknowledges that someone else has met your need. It’s hard to be bitter when we’re thanking Christ for His forgiveness. Thanksgiving really does refocus our perspective! It helps us to think positively and there are a lot of families out there that could benefit from less negativity in their homes! The more I think about it, the more I just love this holiday!
2nd Corinthians 4:15 tells us thatthanksgiving brings glory to God. What more motivation do we need? My prayer for you and me is for a thankful heart EVERY DAY.
“Thanks be to God for His indescribable gift!” – 2nd Corinthians 9:15
Tonight I got to take a turn putting my 6 year old to bed. We were snuggled up together reading a book. It’s so great reading with him because he really gets into the story. He’s learning to read and often wants to tell parts of the story to me. I kept looking up at him, amazed that he’s really my son. I stopped reading for a moment to tell him how blessed I am to have him in my life. I told him how big he’s getting and that I can’t believe he’s already 6. He turned, pressed his buttock against me, and farted.
