A simple yet profound puzzle in scripture is this: Grace is a gift, not given for performance or merit. Yet only the humble can get it. The proud are instead resisted, seemingly not able to get it. So if grace is a gift, then how come one must be humble to get it? I imagine two sailboats. Grace is the wind, continually blowing across the lake toward it's destination. One boat has dropped her sails. The other has set hers, now billowed out by the wind. One boat moves quickly through the water in the direction offered by the wind. The other is blown grudgingly, sluggishly, barely moving. What if humility is nothing more than hoisting our sails into the advice, counsel, and will of God? What if pride is the refusal to do so? Doing the first will surely lead us where God's advice, counsel, and will intend us to go. Doing the other (refusing to do the first) will leave us stuck, floating where ever we dropped our sails, save for the sheer push of God's grace which cannot help but force us along, resisting our commitment to stay stuck. In a practical sense, each time I am presented with any situation or circumstance, I am given two choices from which to pick: 1. I can use this situation to live and serve God and His purposes, hoist my sail, follow His instructions for how to live in this circumstance and go where He intends me to go. 2. I can use this situation to do and accomplish less than above, and have God's grace push my stubborn self along anyway, but have little to no joy in the ride. How many of us excel at pulling down our sails regularly, hoisting them only in safe, predictable, or "let me not have to grow or change too much" situations? Father, you know my heart. You know my tendency to hoist and drop my sails according to my comfort, my fears, and my approval or disapproval of where you'd take me. Give me the courage, the faith in your goodness, and the confidence in your absolute love, so that I might leave those sails up and commit myself to always catch and live by your advice, counsel, and will. Always. Grant that I might to see my pride, my stubborn resistance to you and your advice, counsel, and will. Grant that I might willingly let it go. Help me be what you want me to be, do what you want me to do, and go where you want me to go.
Posted via email from We've Encountered a Terrifying Grace
