Since I saw this, I've been wondering:
In what ways might grace bring about contentment?
cup of grace, canon 40d 02 February 2009
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Wisdom. Faith. Grace. Becoming.
For different reasons, we're all in the crucible. We're walking through a season of intensive refinement, punctuated with celebrations and miracles. We wonder and ask, what is God doing? Where is He? And when it hurts the most, we beg for His deliverance. We struggle to open our hands and our hearts to Him even as we question His presence and purposes in this place. We cry out for Him to show us what He intends for our lives.
And then we are challenged to ask:
What if, instead of pleading His intervention, we acknowledge His presence and thank Him for these crucible moments? What if, instead of asking Him to deliver us from this place, we ask Him to deliver us in this place?
None of us knows the answer, but it is clear He has given us each other to lean in on and walk with. Our tears and prayers and questions spill together. We can each find a reason we don't quite belong, but we know all the same that He brought us together for a purpose that as of now, remains hidden in Him.
This is us, walking through it together. This is us, sojourning through a land where the line between faith and crazy is sometimes imperceptible. Reach out in the dark, and you will find the hand of a friend.
Sometimes we stand and wait, trusting that our seeming stillness somehow amounts to best honoring and serving our King. And sometimes we have the chance to open our windows so everyone can see and to say: Even if He does not show up, I will not bend my knee to another.
Dedicated to the glory of God and for the purposes of His kingdom.
Sarah, Christianne, Christin, and Kirsten
For different reasons, we're all in the crucible. We're walking through a season of intensive refinement, punctuated with celebrations and miracles. We wonder and ask, what is God doing? Where is He? And when it hurts the most, we beg for His deliverance. We struggle to open our hands and our hearts to Him even as we question His presence and purposes in this place. We cry out for Him to show us what He intends for our lives.
And then we are challenged to ask:
What if, instead of pleading His intervention, we acknowledge His presence and thank Him for these crucible moments? What if, instead of asking Him to deliver us from this place, we ask Him to deliver us in this place?
None of us knows the answer, but it is clear He has given us each other to lean in on and walk with. Our tears and prayers and questions spill together. We can each find a reason we don't quite belong, but we know all the same that He brought us together for a purpose that as of now, remains hidden in Him.
This is us, walking through it together. This is us, sojourning through a land where the line between faith and crazy is sometimes imperceptible. Reach out in the dark, and you will find the hand of a friend.
Sometimes we stand and wait, trusting that our seeming stillness somehow amounts to best honoring and serving our King. And sometimes we have the chance to open our windows so everyone can see and to say: Even if He does not show up, I will not bend my knee to another.
Dedicated to the glory of God and for the purposes of His kingdom.
Sarah, Christianne, Christin, and Kirsten
4 comments:
Grace, to me, is so much about receiving the truth that all is okay and that we are okay exactly where we are. If there are missteps, it's okay; grace covers it. If we aren't fully yet what we will one day be, it's okay; grace covers it.
Most of all, grace means we are fully accepted and fully loved beyond what we do, say, think, or feel.
I think this brings contentment because it allows us to rest. So much of the time, our discontentment is fueled by a desire to prove something, get somewhere, be thought of in some way, or gain approval and validation for our lives. Grace says none of that need be. It allows us to settle back in love and just be where we are and where we are slowly going each and every day.
That's my two cents, at least. And I'm loving this photo on my desktop for the week (and perhaps longer!).
I'm having a thought-stampede. I see this and there's so much I want to say, all at once, and I feel run over by my own ideas ;) So here are some of the threads.
I think it's a grace that contentment is possible in this life, that it's something God will give us. In so many ways, we deserve to be discontent. We deserve to chomp at the bit and strive and strain and all those miserable things, and he makes it so we don't have to do that. So God's grace brings us contentment.
Then there's something very like what Christianne said--the grace of being forgiven, being able to move towards wholeness, being invited as ourselves into that--that brings contentment both about where we are now and where we will be.
And then there's the idea that Christ, on the cross, provided the way for our souls to be content, to find peace. Because without the grace of forgiveness, imputation, and justification, there isn't real contentment because there's no way to be right with God.
Hmm...those are what I can grab hold of just now ;)
both of you have shared thoughts that my mind has wandered in and out of since this little teabag first made its appearance in my mug: that grace cultivates contentment because it means that imperfection isn't fatal. it brings contentment because it means that i am more than a performing monkey. it's an invitation to wholeness, a soft space where i can fall apart completely and utterly and the world won't stop if i can't hold it all together.
i love you all so much!! thank you for embodying grace & living it out before me.
This is absolutely beautiful. The word Grace has deep meaning to me. Thank you.
I'm wanting to dive deeper into photography. I hope to share my pics more soon. Praying for wisdom and a way.
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