Tag Archives: grace

Flotsam, Jetsam, and Grace

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“And, Lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age”
(Matthew 28:20)

This last week I’ve had several opportunities to roll up my sleeves and help out those whose homes were hit hardest by the recent flood in Cherokee. Mucking basements, gutting a house; it’s hard work, but good work. It’s sad, wading through the ruins of someone else’s life; but it’s also uplifting, joining with friends to help a neighbor in need. The truly fascinating thing is what you can discover while mucking out a basement. Here are some discoveries that I have made in the last week:

I Want to Travel Light

At the first house I went to, water had filled the basement all the way up to the door to the main floor. By the time we got there, four days later, the water had receded, but the basement had to be emptied. The problem was, the basement was filled, wall to wall, with debris. Boxes of VHS tapes, bags of clothes, piles of old children’s books and toys – a lifetime of belongings coated in muck, beyond any hope for salvage. I can’t imagine the pain and heartbreak the homeowner felt, she couldn’t watch as we hauled everything in the basement to the curb for disposal – these were here memories, sacred relics of her life, each with meaning and significance; now they were unrecognizable piles of waste, ready to be hauled away.

The pastor in me, always seeing things from a Gospel angle, couldn’t help but see my own heart in the poor basement. As I was hauling water logged boxes out of the basement, the thought came to me, “Is your heart any better than all of this?” There is clutter in my heart: divisions of loyalty and love that clamor for my attention; the bitterness and resentment from hurts and heartbreaks long ago that keep me from freely loving and forgiving others; the pride and conceit that I carry with me, thinking that I am somehow better or above all the rest, immune to the problems that others face.

I want, I need, to travel light. All of this clutter in my heart, I need to let it go. All it is doing is weighing me down, keeping me from running the race that is set before me, preventing me from loving the Lord with all my heart, soul, mind and strength.

That sort of leads me to my second point.

Grace is Found in the Least Likely Places

In amongst the flotsam and jetsam, I found a cross. A simple ordinary wooden cross, buried among the muck and destruction of that basement. Laying there among the ruins, in the shambles of a broken life, was the reminder of God’s grace and forgiveness in the Cross of Jesus Christ.

It was a surprising discovery; I never expected to find it there. But isn’t that how grace works? Grace is, after all, the unexpected and undeserved gift of God’s favor for those who could never have hoped to find it. And when you find it, when you stumble upon the surprising and surpassing greatness of God’s grace in Christ, the clutter seems to disappear, the load is lighter, and the burden is easier.

I guess I shouldn’t have been too surprised to find God’s grace in the middle of the mess; isn’t that usually were we find it? When the night is at its darkest, we our strength is completely gone, when hope seems to fail, when we finally realize there is nothing we can do to save ourselves; that is when grace breaks through with saving power.

Remember, there is still a lot of work to be done to help those in need. For the next couple of weeks, every Tuesday, Friday, and Saturday will be clean up days with various types of work to be done – from mucking out basements to demolition and reconstruction. And while the clean up will be over soon, the emotional and spiritual recovery will be with us for a while. Please keep praying for those who have lost their homes and their possessions in the flood, and asking God to show us how we can help.

SDG

Be Diligent

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“Therefore, beloved, since you are waiting for these things,
be diligent to be found by him without spot or blemish, and at peace.”
(2 Peter 3:14)

I guess I’m one of those guys who has to learn something the hard way.  And then, once I’ve learned it, I’ll forget and have to learn it again.

Last year around this time I was writing about the joys of running, how disciplining the body and the soul go hand in hand, and of the many blessings that come from both.

Then winter in NW Iowa set it.

To call my running from December through April sporadic would suggest that there was a modicum of effort made on my part, and that would be an overstatement.  40 miles over 4 months.  It’s embarrassing to even write it out.

Oh, I had plenty of excuses – the cold, the snow, the busy-ness – you name it.  But in the end, an excuse is just that, and it doesn’t make things any better.  Someone once said, “If you really want to do it, you do it. There are no excuses.”  So there.

Should I also confess that as the discipline of running slipped, so did all other disciplines?

Oh, I’ve maintained my scripture reading plan.  I’ve been reading books left and right.  I’ve been praying, preaching, visiting, and ministering with and for others.  But it’s been a while since I’ve made the time to meditate on God’s Word, preach to myself, and allow my Spirit to be ministered to.  I’ve been doing all of this out of my own strength, and I have proven that I am not strong enough.

Like a runner who’s lost conditioning and let the muscles atrophy, my heart has become sluggish, the flame of passion for Christ is only smoldering rather than burning bright, the fruit of the Gospel is being choked out by the desires and the cares of this world.

Then I read this morning the passage above: “Be Diligent!”  Diligence is something that is great if you are already doing it, but seemingly impossible if you don’t.  Like being organized.  “Be diligent,” Peter writes, “to be found by him without spot or blemish, and at peace.”

Now, I could write several pages about the things I/we ought to do to exercise this due diligence in the Christian life, and that would be appropriate.  Things like prayer, worship, meditation and memorization of God’s Word, avoiding gossip and other negative influences, holding fast to those things that are commendable and uplifting… all of these are worthwhile and essential in the kind of diligence that Peter is calling for.

I could also write about the motivation that Peter gives for this diligence; the fact that Jesus is returning like “a thief in the night” and we want to be found ready and waiting when he comes.  There were those in Peter’s day, and they’re still around today, who deny Christ’s eminent return, and therefore have fallen away from the commandments of Christ, thinking that His delay will ensure their safety.  Peter writes that this mentality will lead to their destruction, and that we should “take care that [we] are not carried away with the error of lawless people and lose [our] own stability, but [are to] grow in grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

Those would be fine points of discussion, but when you are heading out on the road to diligence and discipline, the best place to start is at the very beginning.  If I were to throw on the tasks of discipline all at once, it would be overwhelming, and would lead to frustration, despair, and resignation.  If I were to focus solely on the motivation, the warning of Christ’s return, one might be driven and consumed with fear – and Yoda taught us all that “fear is the path to the darkside.”

The foundation of our diligence, however, is not in the motivation, nor is it in the act of discipline.  The foundation of our diligence, our zeal before the Lord, is in His gracious gift.  Peter writes earlier in the letter,

“His divine power has granted to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of him who called us to his own glory and excellence, by which he has granted to us his precious and very great promises, so that through them you may become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped from the corruption that is in the world because of sinful desire” (2 Peter 1:3-4).

It is only because His divine power has given us life, given us godliness, given us the knowledge of Him, given us His secure promises, that we could ever hope to partake in His holiness in peace (the essence of divine nature), escaping from sinful desires.  Our diligence doesn’t come from some self-driven zeal for the Lord, but comes from trusting in His grace, relying on His Holy Spirit, holding fast to His Word, counting on His promises.

Be diligent in righteousness.  Do the things you know you need to do as you eagerly await His appearing so that you may grow in grace and knowledge.  But let God’s grace and goodness in Christ be the foundation of your diligence.

To him be the glory both now and to the day of eternity.

SDG