Grace

I’ve always been a big fan of grace. Back when I thought I wanted kids, that was my girl’s name of choice.

I guess it’s because I need so much of it, and yet have such a hard time giving it to myself.

I’m a very goal-oriented person with a lot of lists and spreadsheets and plans. And lately I’ve learned to give myself a little grace in some of those areas. I like my house clean, but the world won’t end if I don’t vacuum one week. Especially if my floors don’t even look messy. And who cares if I don’t read as many books as I wanted to this year? If I stress myself out trying to do it—what have I really accomplished? Or, when my page-a-day puzzle calendar puzzle is more stressful than fun...who cares if I cheat a little? The point is that it's supposed to be fun.

The pendulum can swing too far—where you let things keep sliding and have no goals. I don’t think that’s a big risk for me, but I’m watchful of it. But if you’re feeling stressed about the long to-do list ahead of you—see which things you can cut out this week. Give yourself some grace.

Promise

This evening as I drove home from work, I thought through all the things I need to accomplish within the next week. And I wondered if it was humanly possible. I began to feel like I was drowning. Like all the organized planning in the world won't be enough to get me through this.

And then I noticed that there in the sky in front of me was a full, beautiful rainbow. And as I sat at the red light, admiring this rainbow, I prayed, "OK...so you promised not to flood the world again...can you promise not to flood my life?"

Well, I don't know if that's the new meaning of the rainbow, but I do know one thing. That rainbow was a reminder to me that I'm not in this alone. It's not a matter if it's "humanly" possible to do everything I need to do. With God, all things are possible. And as sure as the sun is there even when it's raining, God's there even when I feel flooded—causing a beautiful rainbow to shine out of my life.

Escalators

I had this random thought today as I drove home from work: sometimes life feels like you're trying to run up an escalator that goes down. Which is possible, but takes a lot of energy.

Then I thought about how before the fall, there was no toil in work. There was still work, but no toil. I bet that was more like riding up an escalator that goes up.

I remember one time our youth group went to Washington DC. The escalators to the subway there were SUPER long. Like, twice the normal length. And a couple of the guys in our group made it a challenge to get all the way up a down escalator. (Until some security guards made them stop.)

That's the image I have in my mind of this life in this broken world. (Minus the security guards.) It's hard work. Lots of energy. But we press on to win the goal for which Christ has called us heavenward. Because one day, we'll get there.