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March 29, 2007

The spice of life: Many graces...

Recently, I was writing on forgiveness, a topic that is not always easy. But there is something that both compels us to forgive, and that wells up in us when we do forgive. It’s gratitude. It’s a deep sense of thankfulness to the One who redeems us, forgives us so freely, and makes us his own. It is this that adds “flavor” to our life, bring into our life the sweet aroma lf being like Jesus.

A key factor in both loving and forgiving is gratitude. As we are thankful for what God has done for us, and our relationship with him, we can more easily move into other areas that are otherwise difficult.

Americans especially have a hard time with this. Most of us grew up and live in a “gimme” culture. An enormous part of our tax money goes to pay for “entitlement programs,” things we believe are ours by right. We are entitled to them.

And as we are bombarded by the propaganda of advertisers – repeated to us over and over like a mantra – perhaps the one that captured it best was for McDonald's restaurants: “You deserve a break today.”

The truth is, we are spoiled. Even those among us who are less well off materially live a life of luxury by the standards of most of the world. When we consider what we really deserve, it’s not a mediocre hamburger and fries. In fact, looking about us at the colossal mess we have made of our world and the utter disregard we have for the God who made us and loves us, what we really deserve is too unpleasant to talk about here.

The truth is, none of us reading this has gotten what we deserve. And the truth is, without exception, we have been the recipients of God’s abundant, lavish love and grace. We have been forgiven of our rebellion – or worse, our apathy – washed clean and adopted into the family of the King. We are blessed beyond our understanding.

People without socks

Have you ever heard the expression, “Bless your socks off”? It doesn’t mean much to those in places where everyone wears sandals, perhaps. No socks, right? But in other climates and cultures, we usually wear socks, whether for comfort, convention, or to keep from freezing our toes off. But we can all understand that the expression means something a little like getting hit by a bolt of lightning that knocks us right out of our shoes and socks. It's an experience that is life-changing.

We are all barefooted. There is nobody reading this who is wearing spiritual socks. There is nobody reading this who has not experienced the abundant grace of God. The problem is, we experience his grace so much and so commonly that we become oblivious to it. We take it for granted.

Blessings pop into our lives when we least expect them, if we simply pay attention. Some years ago, I was living in Bavaria in southern Germany and was on my way to a castle near the Alps. The place was “off the beaten path.” I first took a train, and then a bus. Finally, the bus dropped me off a mile or two from the castle, leaving me standing at the side of the road with a backpack and a suitcase. In the winter. And just about that time, it began to snow. Hard. Of course. I was not feeling blessed.

As I began walking along the road, schlepping my luggage and rapidly becoming a walking snowman, a song came to my mind, and I began singing:

The Lord is blessing me, right now, right now;
The Lord is blessing me, right now, right now.
He woke me up this morning;
I was clothed in my right mind;
He didn’t have to wake me,
But He does it all the time.
The Lord is blessing me, right now, right now, right now.

And as I sang, my eyes opened and my attitude changed. I began to experience a profound joy and thankfulness to God for letting me experience that beautiful place.

Some of us enjoy material abundance. Others do not. Some of us have enjoyable jobs, others not. Some have the freedom to do what we choose with our day, others do not. Some of us seem to live in a perpetual blizzard. But all of us have experienced God’s abundant blessing and grace. Even if we are getting dumped on by a snow storm. However, we often forget about expressing our thanks to God.

Muchas gracias: lots of graces

We are called to represent our God, to think like him, act like him, speak like him, and be like him. We are called to be good, to reflect the character of our Jesus. As we do that in gratitude for his grace to us, we demonstrate his love through our lives, and we pass his gracious forgiveness – grace we experienced first – on to others who need to experience it next. The goodness that is in us – the character of Jesus – is practical, influencing our every decision through the day. God’s goodness in us reaches out and touches everyone around us.

I was reading in Colossians in a Spanish Bible, and encountered the phrase, “abundando en acciones de gracias,” or in the English NIV, “overflowing with thankfulness.” It occurred to me that overflowing with thankfulness – gratitude – is both a part of goodness and a result of goodness. And the Spanish is especially interesting, when we consider that gracias means both “thanks” and “graces.” So we might say that we are to be “abounding in graces.” Literally translated, the Spanish phrase means “abounding in actions of graces.”

Gratitude and goodness are manifested as we abound in the graces of God, showering them on everyone we touch. As we tell people thanks – gracias – we can think of ourselves as telling them, “Graces to you.” And we can do much worse than that.

Posted by at 03:49 PM | Comments (8)

March 07, 2007

An amazing thing...

In John 17:23, there is this amazing statement:

"I in them, and you in me; that they may be made perfect in one, and that the world may know that you have sent me, and have loved them as you have loved me."

This is Jesus speaking, taking to the Father. The phrase of interest (italics) is that the Father loves us to the same degree, or just as much, as he loves Jesus. The Greek is very clear, and many English translations miss the significance. What an amazing statement!

Posted by at 12:13 AM | Comments (1)