Wednesday, December 16, 2009

Experience the grace you do not deserve this Christmas...



And then I found myself humming...


Amazing Grace...
Amazing, unexplainable, overwhelming, brings unexpected tears to our eyes, constricts our throats, fills our hearts with unexplainable joy. Grace ain't the stuff you can create by repeating, by meditating, by swallowing pills or alcohol. It's uncontrollable. It takes us by surprise ... It reaches into our souls ... and often changes our lives... 


Grace changes our lives forever. 


Grace is friends that show up when you thought you had none. It's a sudden check in the mail when you've just spent your last dollar on food for your family. It's warmth in the cold. It's a problem being miraculously solved by unexplainable means, or zero consequences when we least deserve it ... Grace has nothing to do with rights. It's not about doing right. It's grace, glorious selfless grace...


How sweet the sound...
Grace is something, actually, only our hearts can hear. It causes us to lower our gaze, to bow our heads in shame, to draw slow, heavy sighs of gratefulness and humility ... and freedom ... No sweeter sound ... than grace touching our hearts when we least expect it, when we least deserve it. The sound fills our very being and lifts us to the places reserved for angels and saints 



- and sinners like me.


That saved a wretch like me...
And we are a wretched people indeed, wretched with pity and blame and unkindness to strangers who are carrying even heavier loads than ours. Insensitive to loved ones with whom we bark and snap over misperceived deeds. Wretched with ungratefulness for all that we have, the blessing we've been given, the utter love we have been shown. Even the best of us are wretched indeed...


I once was lost but now am found...
Grace supernaturally reveals our falsehoods, those we live, those we tell others and ourselves, those that fill us with pride when what we should feel is shame. Grace is a mirror, a pathway, a beacon on a hill. It's a north star that provides the only true peace. Grace finds us. It tackles us to the ground. It's charms cannot be stopped. 



Grace has found me.


Was blind, but now, I see...
Grace rips the scales from our hearts, from our minds, from our eyes. Grace moves mountains. Grace calms a raging sea. Grace burns away everything that stands in its way. Ahh to see, to truly see...

T'was Grace that taught my heart to fear...
In the wake of grace, we discover that from which we are saved. Grace reveals that which we deserve - and from which we were spared. Having tasted, having heard, having felt grace, we fear its loss from our lives because now without grace, we can never truly go on.


And Grace, my fears relieved...
No more fears that one day we will be given what our actions, our thoughts and our hearts deserve. Grace, merciful, unexplainable grace, takes away our every fear.



How precious did that Grace appear the hour I first believed.
Grace is pure. It is forever spotless, forever clean, beautiful beyond words. At first and always, at every occurrence along the way.

Through many dangers, toils and snares we have already come...
This is our truth. Life, daily life, is filled with the unexpected, twists and turns that take us by surprise. We lose our way. We lose our joy. We lose our peace. We strive to get it back, toil to have a good life, good relationships. We become ensnared by our thoughts, our actions, our choices, and too many wrong responses that ultimately darken our hearts and our souls.



Because of grace, still we are here.


T'was Grace that brought us safe thus far...
Despite all that we cannot understand about life, the confusion ... We have grace - we are still alive and blessed beyond ... so beyond ... what we could ever deserve.



And Grace will lead us home.
May we cling to grace. May we be grace. May we give grace. It will be a faithful companion. Grace will lead us home.

When we've been here ten thousand years bright shining as the sun...
Grace allows us to be champions, standing strong not in our own right, but shining, glowing, as grateful recipients of grace. By no effort on our own, we shine ... brightly ... as brightly as the brightest star.


We've no less days to sing God's praise then when we've first begun...
My our hearts and our souls be mindful of the grace - any grace - bestowed upon us, from loved ones, from strangers, from ourselves. It is as powerful as it has ever been - as powerful as it will ever be...




"Amazing Grace, how sweet the sound,
That saved a wretch like me....
I once was lost but now am found,
Was blind, but now, I see."



May you experience the grace you do not deserve this Christmas.