On Grace that Abounds in Every Season

It’s a quiet weekend over here on Lake Joy. This morning, I woke with a call from my dad, ready to meet me in Duvall so Emma could go out to the barn and ride. We made it out the door within a half hour. Then I edited a class paper, and worked through the footnotes to make sure I cited everything correctly.

Later, John and I walked Olive around the lake and enjoyed an opportunity to catch up on life, and talk about some important things. Nothing major, just the opportunity to talk uninterrupted.

Now, the house is quiet. Emma did her nails. Lucas is taking care of the neighbor’s chickens while they’re away, so he had to go over and fetch the eggs and clean out the water.

It’s rained, snowed, and clear enough to see blue sky, all in one day. The geese come and go, the winds have been gentle. It’s really just another Saturday, nothing major. Except I’m in a reflective mood and so everything overflows with meaning.

Billy Graham died earlier this week, and I passed into over fifty days of no alcohol. I’ll touch on the alcohol thing later, but I first wanted to say something about Billy Graham. On the morning he died, my news feed went every which way. Some had positive things to say, some did not. Mostly, people reflected on all the things Billy Graham did in his life and how he remained a servant to the people, not the other way around. This gave him the freedom to minister to people across political lines, and to go where he did. He wasn’t trying to get people to serve him. He was trying, with his whole heart, to serve the people he felt God had called him to. I think we could learn something from this.

A friend on Facebook lamented the end of Graham’s life as the sign that the church has also reached an end of something. Billy Graham was symbolic of a simpler time in the world, of a faith that was more black and white, simple and sure. He misses those times. 

Interestingly, I do not.

I recognize that the church is going through a massive transition and consequently, so are the people of the church. There is a lot of infighting and deep enmity between the denominational factions in a way that grieves me. But I don’t want to go back to a time that is not right now. What I’m realizing is that God’s grace is always given in the moment one needs it, and God’s grace is always sufficient.

I guess what I’m saying, quite nebulously, is that each time is its own. All across history and eras, we have faith and religion, people seeking God and finding God. We have wars and rumors of wars, and blood on our hands. I do long for the day when we might finally live in peace with one another, but that isn’t found by looking backward, into the past. That is discovered by working together toward peace today, and long into the future.

Wholeness and well-being begin in the place of our own hearts. We first have to quiet the wars that are waging in our own souls before we can still the storms in other places.

When I decided to give up alcohol for 100 days, I was ending a conflict that has pulled at my heart for a long time. How many nights did I spend wondering if I’d had one too many glasses? Or if I should drink less? Too many. By dying to alcohol for 100 days, the war ended.  I have peace and calm. I’ve entered into a new season. One that began when I chose to lay down my own internal conflict.

I realize people are overwhelmed at the circumstances all over the globe, in particular the violent nature of things happening in schools. School shootings are horrifying.

God does not ask us to reach back into our past and attempt to recreate a particular time when all was well. God is with us. Now. What we need is here. Always.

In order to grab hold of God’s grace, we must lay down the conflicts that rage inside of us and live into our lives as they are, not as we wish them to be. Then, we can take our stands. If I want to be a woman who stands in a place of peace and non-violence, I have to make peace with myself. Then, I can press into the conflicts all around without flinching and wishing life were simpler.

It concerns me that there are those who ache for a simpler time. I get that ache. I really do. But we best be careful. If we spend too much of our time wishing for something to be other than what it is, we forfeit the grace that would be ours, today. God’s grace doesn’t leave us where we are. Grace always takes us where we need to go.

Ask where the war is in your own heart. Make peace with God, and with yourself, right there. Then, you will see how to serve the ones you are called to defend. And you will do it with a clean heart and clear conscience.