Growing in Grace

"All I have seen teaches me to trust the Creator for all I have not seen." Ralph Waldo Emerson Worry. Stress. Fear. Anxiety. As one who has experienced all of these at various times these past several years, I can say that they will not lead to joy. It's difficult sometimes to wrap our minds around our struggles. We may question why. We may get angry. It's definitely not easy to accept it. When things are challenging, we often naturally become stressed. Ann Voskamp writes that  "stress isn't only a joy stealer. The way we respond to it can be sin." John 14:1 says, "Do not let your hearts be troubled. Trust in God; trust also in me." She continues, "I know an untroubled heart relaxes, trusts, leans assured into His ever-dependable arms. Trust, it's the antithesis of stress . . . I can't fill with joy until I learn how to trust: . .If I believe, then I must let go and trust." (p. 146) So the opposite of stress is trust. An...

"You would be very ashamed if you knew what the experiences you call setbacks, upheavals, pointless disturbances, and tedious annoyances really are. You would realize that your complaints about them are nothing more nor less than blasphemies - though that never occurs to you. Nothing happens to you except by the will of God, and yet (God's) beloved children curse it because they do not know it for what it is." (quote by Jean-Pierre de Caussade; p. 125 "One Thousand Gifts") Often in life these past several years, I have seen things as setbacks and disturbances and annoyances. Even now, I feel a little like we've taken a few steps back in life with Dennis' recent hernia surgery. But this chapter in Ann Voskamp's book reminds me that I need to look at these moments also as "grace and gift". In difficult moments, I need to keep my focus on Christ. "Contemplative simplicity isn't a matter of circumstances; it's a matter of focus. ...

"Pain is everywhere, and wherever the pain there can be everywhere grace. . . The only place we have to come before we die is the place of seeing God. This is what I'm famished for: more of the God-glory. I whisper with the blind beggar, 'Lord, I want to see.' (Luke 18:41) (p. 108) "I want to see beauty. In the ugly, in the sink, in the suffering, in the daily, in all the days before I die, the moments before I sleep. Isn't beauty what we yearn to burn with before we die?" (p. 109) "Every moment I live, I live bowed to something. And if I don't see God, I'll bow down before something else." (p. 110) "Eucharisteo is everywhere and I want to see eucharisteo everywhere and I want to remember how badly I really want to see." (p. 111) "How we behold determines if we hold joy. Behold glory and be held by God. How we look determines how we live. . .if we live." (p. 113) "Faith is in the gaze of a soul. That fa...

John chapter 6 opens with crowds of people following Jesus “because they saw the miraculous signs He had performed” (v. 2).  Jesus and His disciples headed for the mountainside, only to find “a great crowd coming toward (them)” (v. 5). Jesus seems to choose this time to “test” His disciples by asking them how the crowd of people could be fed. There were several solutions offered for feeding such a large crowd. The first one as read in Mark 6:36 was to send the people away. Philip added it up and said it would take 8 month’s wages to buy food that would barely feed the crowd. Andrew seemed to be the one to show some faith as he found the boy with 5 loaves and 2 fish and brought him to Jesus. The final and only viable solution came from the Lord. Jesus gave thanks and then had the disciples pass out the food. Warren Wiersbe reminds us that “whenever there is a need, give all you have to Jesus and let Him do the rest.” He also points out the fact that Jesus gave thanks. He writes, “...