by Elizabeth | Apr 11, 2011 | Learning Story
“25 Large crowds were traveling with Jesus, and turning to them he said: 26 “If anyone comes to me and does not hate his father and mother, his wife and children, his brothers and sisters—yes, even his own life—he cannot be my disciple. 27 And anyone who does not carry his cross and follow me cannot be my disciple.” Luke 14:25-27
Robert (our youngest, 15) is reading Tim Keller’s King’s Cross. He shared these quotes with me. A great way to be re-oriented by the Cross as we begin our weeks:
”If you say, ‘I’ll obey you, Jesus, IF my career thrives, IF my health is good, IF my family is together,’ then the thing that’s on the other side of that IF is your real master, your real goal. If he calls you to follow him, HE must be the goal.” Tim Keller
“[Jesus] is not calling us to hate actively, he’s calling us to hate comparatively. He says ‘I want you to follow me so fully, so intensely, so enduringly that all other attachments in your life look like hate by comparison.'”
by Elizabeth | Apr 8, 2011 | Learning Story
“But he gives more grace; therefore it says, ‘God opposes the proud, but gives grace to the humble.’ Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you. Draw near to God and he will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you men of double mind. Be wretched and mourn and weep. Let your laughter be turned to mourning, and your joy to dejection. Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will exalt you.” James 4:6-10
Yesterday I mentioned John Stott’s encouraging and insightful words on James 4:6:
John Stott writes:
“What comfort there is in this verse! It tells us that God is tirelessly on our side. He never falters in respect of our needs, he always has more grace at hand for us. He is never less than sufficient, he always has more and yet more to give. Whatever we may forfeit when we put self first, we cannot forfeit our salvation, for there is always more grace. No matter what we do to him, he is never beaten. We may play false to the grace of election, contradict the grace of reconciliation, overlook the grace of indwelling – but he gives more grace. Even we were to turn to him and say, ‘What I have received so far is much less than enough, ‘he would reply, ‘Well, you may have more.’ His resources are never at an end, his patience is never exhausted, his initiative never stops, his generosity knows no limit: he gives more grace.”
“But grace, in God, has a correlative in man. James, having pointed to God’s sufficiency, points on to our responsibility.”
I have to tell myself NOT to hear what Stott or James is NOT saying. The grace is there for us. But it is what it is, a gift based solely in God’s goodness and flowing in our obedience, directed toward a holy humility that makes us like Christ. In other words, we aren’t to boast that we have ‘MORE GRACE,’ nor are we to rest on the soft bed of grace. We are to learn, live, and love in it. LIVE STORY TODAY!:)
by Elizabeth | Apr 7, 2011 | Learning Story
6 But he gives us more grace. That is why Scripture says:“God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.” James 4:6-7
Tuesday I quoted from Lynn Twist about our sense of scarcity. Well she says we have this nagging sense of not-enough-ness: I didn’t get enough sleep; I don’t have enough time; I’m not smart enough, tall enough, pretty enough…She says, “sufficiency…is a context we generate.”
As Christians, we live in a strange story of sufficiency that overflows in surplus. This is such a simple verse – and short enough to keep the whole thing in my head at one time: “But he gives more grace.” Don’t pass over it. Stop and chew on that. Put it in your mouth like a piece of Juicy Fruit that explodes into flavor. Unlike the gum, the words leave a lingering joy:
“BUT HE GIVES MORE GRACE.”
Where are you not-enough today? What do you have not-enough of? How will you pray? Will you pray that God gives you enough? Will you remember that God’s grace is sufficient? Indeed it is sufficient, but it is also surpassing. There’s a surplus of it. Let us not forget it. (Sorry if I’m coming on strong. I’m preaching to myself:)
I was going to quote John Stott on this, but I’ll save that for tomorrow. A vignette just came to mind. How might this look in my life today? I’m headed out on a road trip with my 17-year-old daughter later. I’m not strong enough to lift my suitcase into the car without feeling some retributive pain later. MORE GRACE in this circumstance could look many ways, but since God is as efficient as He is sufficient, I imagine asking for MORE GRACE is as simple as asking my daughter to put my suitcase in the vehicle. Not rocket science for most of you, but for one who’s lived my life being SELF-sufficient, to ask is a surrender to my weakness made perfect in God’s strength through my healthy daughter.
What about you? Where will you ask for and look for God to “give you more grace” today?
by Elizabeth | Apr 5, 2011 | Learning Story
Cartoonchurch.com
“My grace is sufficient for you.” Recently I experienced one of those heavyweight championship bouts with horrendous insomnia. Some of you know the kind – top ten terrible — when you are awake alone for so many hours you go beyond worrying whether you will sleep that night and begin to believe you will never actually sleep again.
Finally, I remembered one of the best strategies for beating the monstrous fear, which is the larger beast than the Insomnia itself – rest. Repeat something true and meaningful — for me, on this night, “Be still and know that I am God, came to mind.” Repeat it gently, and rest in its reality. Take deep breaths, and rest. Be very still. Know that God is God.
As my body began to calm and my mind began to slow the race, another verse entered my head, welcome but unsought: “My grace is sufficient for you.”
There is no fairy tale ending. I didn’t fall asleep and rest like an infant should. I drifted eventually into one of those light imitation versions of pseudo-sleep and woke feeling the reality of the night, as if I had hardly slept at all. BUT – I did rediscover the reality I need to know in times of fullness and scarcity – God’s grace is sufficient. I actually marveled through the day at how relatively energetic I felt – where did that come from, I would think, as I walked out of an hour and a half at PT with a little extra?
Brene Brown talks about how fear of not having enough interferes with an attitude of joy: “These are anxious and fearful times, both of which breed scarcity. We’re afraid to lose what we love the most, and we hate that there are no guarantees. We think if we can beat vulnerability to the punch by imaging loss, we’ll suffer less. We’re wrong. There is one guarantee: if we’re not practicing gratitude and allowing ourselves to know joy, we are missing out on the two things that will actually sustain us during the hard times.” The Gift of Imperfection
She quotes Lynne Twist’s book, The Soul of Money about being enough:
“For me, and for many of us, our first waking thought of the day is “I didn’t get enough sleep.” the next one is, “I don’t have enough time.” whether true or not, that thought of ‘not enough’ occurs to us automatically before we even think to examine it or question it….
We each have the choice in any setting to step back and let go of the mindset of scarcity. Once we let go of scarcity, we discover the surprising truth of sufficiency. By sufficiency, I don’t mean a quantity of anything. Sufficiency isn’t two steps up from poverty or one step short of abundance. It isn’t a measure of barely enough. Sufficiency isn’t an amount at all. It is an experience, a context we generate, a declaration, a knowing that there is enough and we’re not enough.”
I think Brown and Twist are on to something with this fear of scarcity. They take me back to my need to rest in the heart of sufficiency:
But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me.” 2Corinthians 12:9
How about you? What do you not have enough of, or fear not having enough of? How does God meet you in this fear?
by Elizabeth | Mar 30, 2011 | Learning Story
Long ago, I named the groups that met to share stories “Story People.” One day i walked into a gallery in New Orleans and discovered Brian Andreas’ Story People. I decided we must be “Kindred Spirits.” Here’s a fun new item from their site.
Watch Universal Sign:Peace on Earth by StoryPeeps in Animation | View More Free Videos Online at Veoh.com
by Elizabeth | Mar 29, 2011 | Learning Story
“Come to me, all you who are weary and heavy-laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.” Matthew 11:28-29
Today, for something different, a ‘videocast.’ Do you care for yourself as Jesus cares?
(And yes, I am aware the YouTube chose a particularly unflattering place to freeze my face. I am considering it a practice in being ‘humble in heart’:) to post this.)
This will remain posted on main page as featured video.
