living under the influence (of grace)

Great is His Faithfulness

2009-03-17T17:21:00.001-04:00

I've been thinking a lot this past week. More thinking than blogging, as you've probably noticed....

It's just really intimidating to even attempt to explain grace when I know I'm far from understanding it as well as some wiser and more learned Christians. I'm not giving up on writing about grace; but I just want to get it right, you know?

My perfectionism had returned last week. I had written a few posts, thought I was doing pretty well--and then I realized that I was being too careful. I was starting to avoid posting because I didn't have all the answers. I had a specific way I wanted to progress in my blog posts, and I wasn't going to be able to deliver. So I just...waited. I wasn't sure what for, but I just waited.

And then, spring came. My crocuses started poking through the soil, and I realized that I didn't have to have all the answers. God was going to exercise His sovereignty and "do His thing" regardless of my plans. I'm so glad He did.

And now...I'm ready to be awkward and random and...honest. Not that I was less than forthright before; but now I'm letting go of my ideals for this blog and trusting God with all of this digital rambling.

Because I've realized that God wants to put me in that place where I can't get it right on my own. When I get to that place where my success depends solely on God, it is then that His grace can empower me.

I understand how great His faithfulness truly is when I realize that without His great love and loyalty I would be...consumed (Lamentations 3:22). Not simply misguided, unsuccessful, or unhappy--but consumed, devoured, destroyed. Do we really grasp that? Do we really understand how lucky we are that God has allowed us to live?

I really want to talk about the idea of how amazing and enormous and phenomenal God's grace is. The more I realize what I am and who He is, the more I understand how much I need His grace.

Unexpected Grace

2009-03-10T18:09:00.005-04:00

Lamentations 3:17-26

I have been deprived of peace;
I have forgotten what prosperity is.

So I say, "My splendor is gone
and all that I had hoped from the LORD."

I remember my affliction and my wandering,
the bitterness and the gall.

I well remember them,
and my soul is downcast within me.

Yet this I call to mind
and therefore I have hope:

Because of the LORD's great love we are not consumed,

for his compassions never fail.

They are new every morning;
great is your faithfulness.

I say to myself, "The LORD is my portion;

therefore I will wait for him."

The LORD is good to those whose hope is in him,
to the one who seeks him;

it is good to wait quietly
for the salvation of the LORD.

Experiencing the Phenomenon

2009-03-05T21:30:00.010-05:00

Day 16: I saw a double rainbow (Dobbel regnbue), originally uploaded by Åsta.

I was out running errands when I saw it.

I had just parked my car in a shopping plaza, intent on getting what I needed and heading out to the next place on my itinerary. But my day's agenda was put aside for a few minutes as I stared at the glorious sight in the sky--a double rainbow.

Now, until that day, I had never seen a double rainbow. I was amazed to see how a larger, semi-transparent rainbow arched over a smaller, concentric arc of vivid color, filling a good portion of the sky across the road from the shopping plaza.

People paused in their rush to load their purchases and to head to the next destination to marvel at the phenomenon. Children did not have to plead with their parents to stop and look at the rainbows; instead, adults became child-like, excitedly pointing out both the dual arcs and their different stripes of color. The light drizzle didn't keep store patrons and employees from stepping outside for a few mintues to attempt capturing the radiant majesty with their cell phones. Young and old alike called friends and family, excitedly encouraging them to step outside, to take a break and see if they too could experience the brilliant rainbows.

All observers were rendered virtually speechless by the wonder and beauty of the rainbows. A discussion or explanation seemed--well, pointless.

And the scientific explanation of how rainbows are formed is far from boring. The answers about rainbow formation can lead to even more discoveries. Now we realize that white light is actually composed of several different colors that are visible only when the light is refracted at a specific angle; comprehend what refraction and reflection are; also grasp why the sky "changes color" at sunrise and sunset; and maybe determine why the ocean appears to be different colors when a glass of it is almost colorless--think of all the "cool science stuff" to be learned when we use our experience of a natural phenomenon as our catalyst.

In contrast, what if you had never seen a rainbow but instead learned about only the scientific data, theories and definitions of its key elements--light, refraction, reflection? How excited would you be then?

Reducing a awe-inspiring phenomenon like a rainbow into merely its factual and logical elements would make me lose interest very quickly. You cannot dismiss the "magic" of something just because that wonder is scientifically immeasurable.

We do this all too often with our understanding of God, the Bible, and key theological concepts. We get so focused on the "who, what, when, where, and why" that we forget to look up and marvel at the spiritual phenomenon:

a holy, eternal God took time to reach out to His depraved human creation and give them a WONDROUS gift, and undeserved chance to not only be relieved of their guilt but also spend eternity with Him.

The who, the what, the why, the how--they are all very important. But if we don't take time to put our Biblical knowledge, theology, and doctrine into proper context--into the everyday reality that God wants to be involved in every area of our lives--then we're missing out on experiencing the magnificent reality of God and His grace.

In contrast, once we experience the wonder of God and His grace, our desire to learn about Him will be unquenchable.

So, what is this phenomenon of grace all about? Again, I'm not a trained theologian, just a willing and teachable student. But I hope that all who read will be convinced of how incredible God's grace is and motivated to pursue God for a lifetime.

Just a Thought...

2009-02-25T13:17:00.004-05:00

Nature is beautiful., originally uploaded by luisa_m_c_m_cruz.

"God cannot give us a happiness and peace apart from Himself, because it is not there. There is no such thing." --C. S. Lewis

A Snapshot of Grace

2009-02-22T16:45:00.000-05:00

True confession time: I am not always serious and deep.

In fact, if you read my other blog, bluejeanshostess.blogspot.com, or if you have spent any time with me, you will soon learn that I am usually fluctuating between two extremes. I could be oscillating between shy/awkward and chatterbox, or random and organized, maybe old soul and big kid, sometimes analytical and dramatic...I'll stop my list there.

Basically, I'm a walking paradox. Aren't we all?

So, today, I want to let you into my world for a bit. Don't be too afraid. It'll be okay.

I chose these two videos to start an occasional series of posts (read: I'm being random) I'm calling "Snapshots." I hope to share real-life stories of how God's grace both saves us and helps us live in an authentically Christ-like way.

So, without further adieu...

Here's is Steve Watts' story in two parts.

Part One: The Shooter Who Stole His Peace

Part Two: Forgiving the Dangerous Fugitive

For full transcripts of Part One, click here. For full transcripts of Part Two, click here.

God's grace is too amazing for words.

The Trouble with Words

2009-02-21T16:30:00.008-05:00

Old Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, originally uploaded by Pix from the Field.

I love words. There's nothing like opening up a dictionary and finding the meaning of a word. Formal, colloquial, slang, archaic--the category often varies, but the results are the same. Curiosity satisfied, and knowledge gained.

My love of dictionaries probably started at an early age with my penchant for books and the advent of my father's dinner table discussions. It continued throughout my educational experiences and flourished in the most unlikely of places--my college Creative Writing class.

For me, Creative Writing was an unlikely place to foster my love of words, because, truth be told, the class became the bane of my sophomore year. My struggles in that class had very little to do with my instructor and a lot to do with my innate analytical tendencies coupled with perfectionism--in short, I wasn't ready to be "creative" and "vulnerable" with my writing. Exposition, not narrative, was my strength.

However, one assignment I did enjoy and excel at was assembling a creative writing notebook--I believe this project salvaged my deplorable grade in EN 301. Of the five sections I had to include, the one I enjoyed the most was the one entitled "Word Lists, Facts, and Games." I honestly enjoyed researching idioms, or figures of speech--phrases like "bed of roses" and "New York minute" that don't mean much apart from their cultural context. Or, as the definition from American Heritage Dictionary cited by dictionary.com clearly states:

id·i·om (ĭd'ē-əm) noun A speech form or an expression of a given language that is peculiar to itself grammatically or cannot be understood from the individual meanings of its elements, as in keep tabs on.

Some of the idioms I found most fun were the Spanish and French idioms that were amusing when translated into English. Here are some examples I gleaned from Suzanne Brock's resource Idiom's Delight:

¡Véte a freír esparragos! Literal translation? Go fry asparagus! In English, we say, "Go fly a kite!" I guess the Spanish don't eat much asparagus.

Tengo un gallo en la garanta. Literally, I have a rooster in my throat. Americans have slimy frogs, not scratchy birds, in our throats--makes for easier swallowing. (Sorry for the visual.)

La brebis galeuse de la famille. It means the mangy sheep of the family in French. A little more pitiable than the black sheep, I think.

Now, I won't subject you to too much more of my logophilia (love of words), but what struck me fifteen years ago as I was researching those foreign language idioms was how the meaning unequivocally vanished in direct translation. All of the cultural identity and metaphoric understanding of the idiom disappeared when interpreted into another language. Although misusing idioms can be fodder for humorous stories, misusing certain words or phrases could make assimilating into a foreign culture awkward and slow at best.

Just as we can completely miss the meaning of someone retorting, "Oh, go fry asparagus!" the same disruption can occur when we are discussing theological concepts. Something important can be "lost in translation," making us both unaware of false teaching and spiritually handicapped in our own pursuit of truth. This misunderstanding can occur for several reasons:

We define words based on our experiences with those words--very powerful when the experience is negative.
We rely on the definitions that we've heard or learned from other people, putting too much weight in one human being's interpretation.
We align the word's meaning with our own agenda, whether that be self-justification, manipulation of others, or self-advancement.
We assume that our finite minds can completely comprehend an infinite God's message.

Now, I may be accused of thinking too much for my own good. Sometimes that is true--too much thinking and not enough doing can, as Edmund Burke warned, let evil triumph. But when you believe that your life choices have eternal ramifications, I think that more thinking before speaking or acting is a good thing.

For the next few posts, I want us to seriously consider how we define the concept of grace. I believe that honest-to-goodness Christians with good motives and even better intentions can completely miss how to live authentically Christ-like, fittingly human lives.

So, what do you think gets "lost in the translation" when we talk about Biblical concepts and doctrine? What can disappear when we move the concept from infinite to finite, from eternal to temporal, from ancient language to modern English? It's worth the discussion.

Starting the Discussion

2009-02-17T16:50:00.003-05:00

père lachaise, originally uploaded by Samuel Boulitreau.

In my family, we didn’t merely talk at the dinner table—we discussed and debated.

After grace was said and the food was passed around, the conversation would start innocently enough with, “How was your day at school?” However, after a few minutes of hearing the details of three children’s experiences at school, my father would earnestly begin his “lesson.”

My father is not a professional educator. He's a technical school graduate who completed his apprenticeship as a tool and die maker after spending 4 years in the US Navy during the mid 1960’s. But he has loved history and valued learning for as long as I can remember.

Back to the “lesson.” Whether it was inspired by either something we children had recounted earlier, something on the news, or something he had been mulling over, my father always had a lesson. Something to teach. A method for stretching our minds. A plan to teach us critical thinking.

Often it began with an open-ended question, which led to more questions from us, then answers (or more questions) from my father. Sometimes these questions led to heated debates between us children, many of which unsettled my mother, the family “peacemaker.”

The mental "calisthenics" might also include a little physical exercise. During a discussion, if we asked where a country was or what a word meant, we never got a direct answer. Instead, we were instructed to “go get the globe” or “go find the dictionary.” After we retrieved said item, my father would encourage us to find the answer ourselves, helping us only if we were stumped. Then back to the discussion at hand, with my father continuing the mental workouts.

And it still continues today. If a meal is being served, a discussion is brewing. My father may not start the deliberation, but he has taught his children well enough how to start a thought-provoking conversation on their own. (Which can make holiday gatherings a bit "interesting.")

I realize that those dialogues shaped both my mind and my soul. The questions my father raised, though rarely theological in nature, made me pursue truth and evaluate those who were said to speak the truth.

It's not been an easy journey, this pursuit of truth, but it has lead me to draw this conclusion:

we must better understand what it means to live by God's grace.

I know I don't completely understand His grace, much less how to live under its influence. But I hope that starting this discussion about God's grace will enable both myself and my readers to better understand it and live under its influence.