Prayer:
Gracious Father, in your mercy we have received all we need and more than we could expect. Make our hearts both alive in thanksgiving and expressive in service to our neighbor. Amen.
Bible Reading:
Romans 5:1-5
Silence:
One to two minutes
Reflection:
Grace is a sleeper word. Not in its substance and meaning, but in the lightness and cozy ways that it get used. Usually, grace is a warm fuzzy, or an angel-like communication, or prayer at the beginnings of meals. In truth, however, as my Dad taught me, “grace” is unmerited blessing. From here on in grace takes on a quality of both a devastating reality and a transformational term. In its devastating role, it denies to any of us a single thread of partnership, it condemns all ego contributions, it declares us without redeeming value—it is truly unmerited. Yet in the same moment, grace makes all things new, creates anew, brings life out of death. It is more than mere transformation, it bring into being that which did not exist before, namely a child of God. But before it does the latter, it accomplishes the former. Grace crushes, then creates.
Action – Repentance and Creation:
List three of the things that you would like to change about your life (using your discontents as a barometer of importance), and reflect first, on how God may be inviting you to get in tune with Him (by prayer, by repentance, by obedience), and second, plan and execute a plan in the next 24 hours that will engage one of these changes in a positive, reaffirming, healthy direction. Be modest in your goal, at least for today, but take one concrete step.