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God’s Grace is Like a River

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I have had several conversations about God’s grace over the last several months so I wanted to share this common analogy that God’s grace is like a river.  

My family goes tubing every year on the Ichetucknee River.  I love to get there early and start from the midway point so we beat the crowd that is starting from the top. We can spend an hour or more in peace and semi-quiet just enjoying the river and nature.  

That is one of the images I have for God’s grace.  When we are doing the will of God we are carried along in peace.  We know that trouble will come in the way of rapids, but if we really trust God we will know how to handle those rapids because we have been training to do so.  

We Spend a Lot Of Energy Fighting God’s Grace

I don’t know about you, but most of my life I have been a swimmer.  Trying to fight the current and swim upstream.  Trying to swim straight across the river and getting tired before I made it halfway.  Or, I would see the rapids coming and didn’t trust God to get me through them.  

The rapids of life will come, we can’t avoid them.  Our challenge is not to avoid them, it is to trust our gear (Gods grace) to get us through them.  I’m not saying that God puts the rapids there.  People are people, and we are fallen.  People make bad choices, our bodies break down, and things just happen.  

We Can Go Against God’s Will

God gives us free will and many times it is through free will that bad things happen.  We make bad choices like spending our paycheck on drugs, eating terribly and not exercising, or marrying a spouse who does those things expecting to change him or her.  

Many times our first thought, when bad things happen, is to blame God.  God is not sitting around just waiting to cause something bad to happen to us.  Cars break down, spouses leave, and people die. So instead of blaming God, we trust him to give us the strength to get through these times.  Jesus even says that there will be bad times in your life but if you trust Him, He will help you get through it. (John 16:33, Matthew 11:28-30)

I have a friend who wrote a song called, Standing in the River. (Regrettably, it has never been published)  He talks about how it only took a moment to make the wrong choice and change his life.  It also only takes another moment to make the choice to let God in to help us get through the rough waters of life.  God isn’t going to barge in.  He stands at the door and patiently knocks. (Revelation 3:20)

Travelers on the Journey

By the time my family gets done with our first run on the Ichetucknee, the crowd is building and if we decide to go down the river a second time we can do it with hundreds of our closest friends.  At the beginning of our journey on the river of God’s grace, we may seem alone.  The longer we stay on the river the more people we will meet who are going our way. 

Spirituality Means Seeing Yourself As You Are

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I am currently rereading, The Spirituality of Imperfection (Amazon Link) by Ernest Kurtz and Katherine Ketcham.  First, because it’s a pretty good book.  But also because I might have skimmed it the first time, and I’m trying to learn what they are saying.  So where better to start than at the beginning.

No One Is Perfect

Spirituality begins with the acceptance that our fractured being, our imperfection, simply is: There is no one to “blame” for our errors–neither ourselves nor anyone or anything else. Spirituality Helps us first to see, and then to understand, and eventually accept the imperfection that lies at the core of our human be-ing.

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I have never wanted to see myself as I am.  I had pictures of who I thought I was.  A failure.  A Fat kid.  Lazy.   I also never believed I should make a mistake.  When I did I knew I was a failure and cursed myself for it.  

All those terrible self-thoughts shoved God out of my life.  I lived to be the victim.  I always thought I was in control but I’m not.  I wanted to play God because I thought I could do a better job.  Controlling everyone around me manipulating friends and coworkers.  Inserting myself into situations so I could look like I was the savior for the day.  

I’m Not Who I Thought I Was

The core paradox that underlies spirituality is the haunting sense of incompleteness, of being somehow unfinished, that comes from the reality of living on this earth as part and also as non-part of it.  For to be human is to be incomplete, yet yearn for completion; it is to be uncertain, yet long for certainty; to be imperfect, yet long for perfection; to be broken yet crave wholeness.  All of these yearnings remain necessarily unsatisfied, for perfection, completion, certainty, and wholeness are impossible precisely because we are imperfectly human–or better, because we are perfectly human, which is to say humanly imperfect.

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Through the Grace of God and a new understanding of who I am, I know that is all a lie.  But I spent years blaming my mother, my circumstances, my job, the list goes on; for my screwups.  I hated myself and God helped me finally see that everyone makes mistakes, everyone fails and a failure isn’t the end of the world.  Until I was willing to take advice and let God change me none of that could happen.

I’m not a whole person and that’s okay.  Where I end, God begins today.  I am a good person who has made mistakes.  Today my yearnings are not for wealth or power but for more of God and I never understood that before.  I do understand that I’m not perfect and neither are you, but with God, we can be whole.  God loves us no matter what and all He has ever wanted is a relationship with all of us.

Principles or Rules?

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I grew up in a rule-based household.  We did what we were told when we were told to do it, or there were consequences.  As children, we need to learn how to follow the rules our parents set down for us.  As adults, rules help people feel comfortable.  If we obey the rules we won’t get fired, arrested, or be an outcast from our peer group.

Rules Are Great

rule ro͞ol/ noun

plural noun: rules; noun: Rules

1. one of a set of explicit or understood regulations or principles governing conduct within a particular activity or sphere.
“the rules of the game were understood”

synonyms:
regulation, ruling, directive, order, act, law, statute, edict, canon, mandate, command, dictate, decree, fiat, injunction, commandment,  stipulation, requirement, guideline, direction; formal ordinance
“health and safety rules”

Rules help keep people in line.  They draw the edges each of us must color inside of.  Rules give us structure and allow us to play the common games of life.  But, rules don’t enable us to live.

The famous adage, “Rules are made to be broken.” In NASCAR they say, “If you’re not cheating, you’re not trying.”  All you have to do is turn on a media device, and you can see, read, or hear about people breaking rules.  From pastors to businesses, to the guy down the street. Even you and I do break or have broken rules in our lives.

Principles Give Guidance

prin·ci·pleˈprinsəpəl/noun

plural noun: principles

1. a fundamental truth or proposition that serves as the foundation for a system of belief or behavior or for a chain of reasoning.  “the basic principles of living”

synonyms: truth, proposition, concept, idea, theory, assumption, fundamental, essential, ground rule “elementary principles”

Principles are the basic building blocks of our humanity.  Principles are above us, spiritual in nature.  When we live by principles we don’t have to live by rules.  We just live.  They are God-given and eternal.  If we let these principles of God guide us we can live better and more fulfilling lives.

So What Are These Principles

I’m not God and neither are you.  There is an Orthodox Christian icon called Christ Pantocrator (Ruler of the universe).  I have a friend who calls himself the Notocrator, or ruler of nothing.  He says that he wants to remind himself that he is not God.  Understanding that we are powerless over life, and other people, enables us to focus on God.

God is first others are second (Matthew 22:37-40).  You can’t keep it if you’re not giving it away.  We need to seek God’s will (Matthew 6:33) in all that we do and loving others is a key part in it.  When we don’t include others in our lives, we turn inward and can become bitter and resentful.  I can almost guarantee, someone you know needs you now or will need you in the future.  Will you be there when God wants to use you?

Love conquers all (1 Corinthians 13).  We don’t harm others because it’s a rule, but because we love God and people.  Only through a relationship with God can we truly love even our enemies as God loves us.

We need more deep people.

We don’t need more tough, strong, or angry people.  What we need are people who are willing to let God change them at their deepest level.  People who will live by God-given principles of love and share their lives with others.  We also need teachers of these principles to lead the charge.

Spiritual Growth Takes Effort

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Our growth toward God starts with us actually moving toward God.  One of the biggest lessons I had to learn was, I have to put effort into my relationship with God.  If you have ever listened to or read anything about spiritual growth you have heard this as well.  The problem is that I wasn’t doing it.  I came up with a lot of new and innovative ways to persuade God into seeing things my way.  The problem was,  that I didn’t actually want to spend time getting to know God and seek His true will for my life.

I spent years struggling with God.  Early in my life in the church, I knew that when I spent time in prayer I saw a spiritual growth in my life.  However, I was never willing to stop and put the time in.  There was time to go to college, maybe head knowledge would get me closer to God.  I got on staff at a church, maybe working for God would get me closer.  I got ordained, He will love me so much more now that I’m a pastor.   All that time and money, and prayer and meditation were what I needed to get closer to God.

In the valuable little book, Way of the Ascetics, (Amazon Link) Tito Colliander writes,

Faith comes not through pondering but through action. Not words and speculation but experience teaches us what God is. To let in fresh air we have to open a window; to get tanned we must go out into the sunshine. Achieving faith is no different; we never reach a goal by just sitting in comfort and waiting, say the holy Fathers. Let the Prodigal Son be our example. So, he got up and went to his Father (Luke 15:20).

Spiritual Growth Isn’t An Option

When we decide to let God start to change us, we have to also realize it can’t be optional.  Just like eating, and breathing, out time in prayer daily is not optional.  Our job is to put ourselves in a position to hear and learn from God.  My biggest problem was that I wanted to tell God what I wanted my spiritual growth to look like, not sit down and learn from Him.  I wanted to force God into a box, not to be changed.  I didn’t want to give myself up so I could truly grow.  Meister Eckhart said, “Be willing to be a beginner every single morning.”  I want to be a beginner every day so that I may learn from God.