The other night, we had a campfire. We watched the flames dance, listened to the wood crack and pop. We watched the wind blow the smoke around. We sat mostly in silence. Nothing needed to be said. In those moments, I experienced a greater sense of peace and contentment than I had in a long while. I just breathed the fresh air. I merely sat there enjoying the moment. My soul drank in the stillness.
He could have let Jonah die a slow painful death being digested by a giant fish. Now aren’t you glad that God shows mercy to Jonah? I know I am. Because I need the sort of God who lovingly pursues me. I need the sort of God who will be merciful towards me. In spite of Jonah’s disobedience, God uses this situation to make His name great. God could have used someone else to witness to the Ninevites but God’s actions here would seem to indicate that God desires Jonah. This is good news. Even if we give up on ourselves, God doesn’t give up on us.
While we might think that God’s grace is super-abundant in that we could have more than we would ever need or want, we act like it will run out, that there won’t be enough. Much like the Christmas cookies or hot water for a shower on a Sunday morning we might think we need to grab what we need/want before someone else takes it all and there’s none left for us. But God’s grace is more than sufficient for your or my every need.
We talk a lot about grace. We insist on how we need to give each other more grace. We even insist on how people ought to give us more grace. We might even tell ourselves that we ought to give ourselves more grace. But is it possible we missed the point of grace? Maybe we got grace wrong.
We often have preconceived notions about the what, the why and how of God’s calling. It receives no small attention from Pastors, authors of theology, bloggers, and the Jesus following Church member. I think that’s because it’s almost in no way theoretical and is extremely personal. Within God’s calling we find our guidance, our direction, our source of adventure, assurance and peace.
We seem to be caught in a vortex of articles on the internet suggesting what the church needs to do differently or better, to remain relevant. They often sound vague and like there’s someone, somewhere else that needs to do something differently about the problem. But when we talk about the church, we’re not talking about a building or somebody else we’re talking about ourselves.
Everyone has something to say about leadership. Many people pursue positions of leadership while others actively avoid positions of leadership. We as people each individually need to be led. Whether we know it or not we will follow something or someone because we are creatures who follow.
It’s so easy to let your self-worth be based on how you esteem yourself. When we self value and esteem our worth of who we are based on what we think we have the tendency to either think too highly of ourselves or too little of ourselves.
Even Moses standing before a burning bush was reminded by God almighty that he need not approach in haste or to consider the ground where God had chosen to meet with Moses as ordinary. Moses was cautioned to keep his distance and to remove his sandals. God declared who He was and Moses hides his face from God because Moses is afraid.
You need the right tool for the right job. Each tool serves a specific purpose and they all serve a purpose in your toolbox. In the same way, we each need certain tools to dig into God’s Word.