Category: Easter

GRACE

I am still basking in the glow of Easter Sunday.  Our church, like many, offered multiple worship times on this holiest of weekends, but for me, there is something so special about going to worship at 8:30 on Easter Sunday.  Calls of, “He is risen!” Answered by, “He is risen indeed!”  The atmosphere is one of joy, especially in contrast to the heaviness of Good Friday.

Our choir sang the most beautiful song on Sunday, one that was new to me: Jesus, I Give You Praise.   I quickly looked it up on the Internet, and I have been playing it over and over. Even this morning (Monday), I have tears as I sing along. While all the lyrics are beautiful, there is one line that captured my heart. “Your grace, it changed my life.” I have been thinking about those words and meditating on the grace of God. As only He can orchestrate, my Bible study group is studying Ephesians, a book that is saturated in grace. Also, I keep a Bible journal, and my word for this month is “grace.”  So I was primed to hear that line.

“Your grace, it changed my life.” So true! My life was going in one direction, and when I was 18, Jesus changed my trajectory. Although at that age I gave little thought to the course of my life, looking back I can see that I was headed down a path of destruction. I do not deserve to be where I am today.  Happily (but imperfectly) married, with a big (but imperfect) family. And most importantly, I have the privilege of being in relationship with Jesus. I get to share Him with others, write about Him and speak about Him, things I would never have done on my former course. His grace changed my life!

His grace showed me that I was a sinner, in need of a Savior. Even though I did not deserve it, He paid the price for my sins.  That is grace! His grace gave me hope and a new identity: Christian. His grace gave me a hunger for His Word. The old Fran couldn’t even understand the Bible; it might have well have been written in the original Greek. His grace gave me a desire to know Him more deeply. His grace planted me into a fellowship of Believers; my best friends are the ones I can pray with and with whom I can discuss the things of God. It is by his grace that I enjoy the blessings of and endure the trials of this life. His grace secured my final destination. I know that one day I will go into His presence and live there for eternity.

I invite you to find this song and sing along. Lift up your own holy hands and worship Him. His grace truly is amazing!

SUNDAY

It’s Friday.  The disciples are shocked, scattered, and shattered.  It wasn’t supposed to be this way.  They thought there was a future, a plan.  They risked everything they had to follow Jesus.  Now that plan is destroyed.  Terrified, they wonder what is next.  Will the Roman soldiers be coming for them?

We have all had our Fridays.  A midnight phone call, a pink slip at work, a bad diagnosis, an “I don’t love you any more.”  We are devastated.  Brokenhearted.  This is not the way it is supposed to be!  We had a plan, we were all in, and now that plan is in pieces.  We wonder if there is another shoe to drop.  

It’s Saturday.  The disciples are in pain.  Mary must have been in agony.  Still in shock, they are constrained by the laws of what might be their last Sabbath Saturday.  They cannot even care for the body of their Lord.  And God seems silent.

After devastating life events, we too experience those dark Saturdays.  Caught between the familiarities of what were our lives only a few days ago, we are now in uncharted territory.  We don’t know what to do.  We are spent and exhausted.  We can’t even imagine moving forward. And God seems silent.

It’s Sunday!  He is risen!  His disciples wonder if it could possibly be true.  Everything changes.  There is now hope and a future.  They get a new plan, and gradually they understand that this was the plan all along.  They get new marching orders.  They rejoice and sing a new song.

 We finally get a Sunday.  That which was dead comes to life again.  We discover that we can move forward and put one foot in front of the other.  We don’t go back to where we were, but we get a different kind of good, one that we could never imagine.  God gives us a new plan and a new direction, one that we slowly realize as our destiny from the beginning.  We get a new purpose.  We can actually be happy again.

Lord, thank you for Sundays!