Grace... on the outside looking in............

thinking of Christian... of Bunyan's famed Pilgrim's Progress, my mind is oft enraptured with the imagery used of a burden... A burden upon his back... One modern children's rendition even showed a beautiful painting of Christian with a terrible overloaded backpackers pack upon his back, as he walked with this upon him, he is visibly hunched over, nearly to a 90 degree angle... And so the image sticks in my mind.... Burdens....

Burdens can come in many forms... They can be illnesses, cancer, diabetes, thyroid disease, mental instability....Burdens can be financial.... job loss, foolish choices, a mortgage too high, a car loan, debt, even gambling... Some Burdens are ones people have put on us, and we've been too busy, or too silly to notice and take off.... Some Burdens can be ordained, while others have been brought on by ourselves... though we'd not be admitting it any time soon.... and yet sometimes, people are to quick to point the finger directly at us for each and every one of our burdens, forgetting that God is indeed sovereign, forgetting about grace entirely... and it is these people who need to just sit on their hands like good little boys and girls and remember their manners...

They ought to remember it's rude to point at people...

Burdens...
Another burden is the Standard, the Law....
Beyond the Commandments...
Those standards and rules that MAN has imposed upon us..
(As I have often referred to in this blog, when I speak of "standards" or Standard Bearing" I am referring to articles written by NORM WAKEFIELD... Please be blessed by looking those up :)

These Standards they make me think of a ceiling I once saw at a children's museum in San Francisco... The silly Ceiling my children called it... It rose and it fell, making optical illusions; making the daddy seem smaller than the child, making the child seem smaller than the door.... all done with lines and shadows, squares on the floor and the changing of the ceiling I believe.... It pressed down in the back... bearing down... and like a burden, made the person under it, SEEM more than they were.... MORE important, MORE mighty, and yet... it was an illusion... not at all UNLIKE living under the Law, or under the Standards.... Yet any room can do that, I FEEL bigger when I am in my kitchen than I do when I am standing beside the Grand Canyon... Because beside the Grand Canyon... I am tiny... yet next to my stove... I am not that tiny...

Grace....
Grace is like living on the beach. With the wide deep unpredictable ocean at your feet. The rocks and the cliffs there behind you, rising to their mighty crests, and the horizon... jetting before you... Grace is watching the sun rise, and set, the sky filled with its vast multitude of starry hosts prancing their stories across the night.... Grace is having nothing above you but the heavens... And while THAT is beautiful and amazing... it is indeed frightening.

Because walking, living, breathing in Grace requires Faith. Living in Grace means I will LIVE in the sunshine as well as in the storm; I will not retreat to be nestled in the safety of my cozy little home... I will dwell in the rain, the hail, the snow, the wind trusting in God to provide... I will bare my cross and follow... but I will be free in Jesus with out the burden... Grace means the sun will beat down upon me, the salt with season my tongue and lips, and the wind will tangle my hair.... Grace can get messy, but it wholey relies on Christ, proving in each moment HIS sufficiency... it does NOT require you to live on the beach... THAT would be another burden... this is symbolic... Burden means I am comfortable in Air Conditioning....everything... is neat, and tidy, or awfully close to it... it's a "controlled atmosphere" and I am the one controlling it, even if the storm hits, I can close the shutters, put on the AC, put on a movie and ignore that there is a storm... Where as... with Grace... I have NO choice but to face the storm, live through it, relying on God, putting my faith in Jesus each and every moment... bringing Him immense glory, and receiving tremendeous joy!

Lets FACE it... when the going gets rough we all like to know the rules... We all want our "to do list" so we can just FOLLOW IT.... We all want to check it off, and just BE SAFE.... little babies when not in mothers arms simply adore being in crib or bassinet, because of the comfort it brings to them... the wide open freedom at times can overwhelm their senses and stress them out... It is why they love to be swaddled as newborns... it is comforting, like being in the womb...There are times, when that bit of structure is needed to ensure their peace, but let there be slats for them to see.... for they want to see freedom.... So do we... We are frightened of it, we don't know what to DO with it, but we sure want to SEE it...We have windows looking OUT to grace... We talk about grace, listen to sermons on grace... Sing how amazing Grace is... But LIVE moment to moment by Grace?

Yet Jesus said it is by Grace we are saved (not of works) it is a GIFT of God.....

I am not advocating selling your home and living on a beach... I am indeed writing symbolically here. Follow my line of thinking if you can... Imagery friends :)
How many of us are on the beach...
How many of us do more than visit the beach once a week?
Once a month?
Once a year?
Do you live there?
Walk there,
get wet in the rain weathering the storms ON the beach?
Are you looking out onto the sand
or looking into the house or condo?
Looking for the ones you love, inviting them to follow as YOU follow Christ...?
or staring at your loved one on the beach, wondering why they are out there all WET?

Sorry for not writing lately...
The beach is miles long
I have been shelling by day and by night I've been stargazing...
The nights here have been long, and lonely...
and I only hope I don't cave and go back in...
My prayer is they'll come out and join me...
and KNOW that the Lord HE IS GOOD
He promised
to never leave me nor forsake me
that no matter what...
NO MATTER what....
&
I AM HIS
and HE will take care of me,
He pointed me to the sparrow, and showed me how He cared for them....
and wrote to me HOW much MORE HE cares for me
for you....
I can stand in the rain
the snow
I can be a fool for Jesus
and KNOW
He was made a fool for me...
and It WILL be ok
HE will provide, and care for me
if GOD is with me,
what ever do I have to be afraid of......

just on the outside.... looking in