Grace~

    Has it ever occurred to you that most of the important words about faith are hard to get your mind around, hard to define much less put into words? Grace, for example. My Westminster Dictionary of Theological Terms starts by defining grace as “unmerited favor.” Then it gets down to details, offering a brief commentary on specific topics--cheap grace, justifying grace, systems of grace theology of grace, twenty-four in all. Fine, but I’m still challenged to put into words what grace means to me, to my experience. It is not about definition.

      So here I am, with my very personal try that has to do with how I try to lead my life, which is what I am searching for. I know that any good I have is pure grace. And yet, does this mean that I can just do what I want, because after all, it’s all about grace? Can I abuse grace by paying no attention to it? By no means. I’ve had an abundance of grace (some would call it luck) in my life. I could ask myself why, but the more helpful questions is what?, what to do with it?

     A quick, easy answer would be to run around and do good works. A more prayerful answer would be to pray about it. Start with gratitude and move on and ask, What God, do you want me to do with this grace-filled life?

Every week in church we sing:

Lead me, Lord, lead me in thy righteousness,
    make thy way plain before my face.
For it is thou, Lord, thou Lord, only,
    that makest me dwell in safety.

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