...I would be a total wreck. Sometimes things just happen to bring me down...
down down down. Actually, whatever that thing may be, it's just one of two major things: guilt or pain. It doesn't need to be a major upheaval or catastrophic instance in your life... sometimes the little annoyances are just enough to turn what would otherwise be a wonderful life into a dreary existence, from your perspective at least.
Good thing the Big Guy (I refuse to say
Big Brother!) up there has an entirely different view from where He stands... or sits (on His throne, of course). However we see ourselves, He sees us differently. That's because He has an obstructed view... His sight is mercifully obstructed by His own doing: it is by His grace that He sees not the filth but the renewed and redeemed lives when He looks at us. Indeed, His grace is sufficient.
My thoughts turn to this direction because I've been rereading this book:
It's by Chuck Swindoll as you can see and it's just what I needed. I've read it before so I should know better than to allow myself to be "down-ed" by guilt and/or pain. But darn, I just don't know any better. I'm sure you don't too so you should definitely give this book a try, just so you can find out what it does to you and your life. I bet you won't be the same after you give it a spin.
One thing I like about Chuck Swindoll is his ability to choose the most perfect extractions from various literature sources to bring home his point. My favorite is this.
This is the world telling us how we should think (taken from Invictus, a favorite at graduation ceremonies):OUT of the night that covers me,
Black as the Pit from pole to pole,
I thank whatever gods may be
For my unconquerable soul.
In the fell clutch of circumstance
I have not winced nor cried aloud.
Under the bludgeonings of chance
My head is bloody, but unbowed.
Beyond this place of wrath and tears
Looms but the Horror of the shade,
And yet the menace of the years
Finds, and shall find, me unafraid.
It matters not how strait the gate,
How charged with punishments the scroll,
I am the master of my fate:
I am the captain of my soul.
Grace on the other hand, changes everything (from Dorothea Day, this is her take on the Invictus).
Out of the light that dazzles me,
Bright as the sun from pole to pole,
I thank the God I know to be,
For Christ, the conqueror of my soul.
Since His the sway of circumstance,
I would not wince nor cry aloud.
Under that rule which men call 'chance,'
My head with joy is humbly bowed.
Beyond this place of sin and tears
That life with Him! And His the aid
Despite the menace of the years,
Keeps, and shall keep me, unafraid.
I have no fear, though strait the gate.
He cleared from punishment the scroll.
Christ is the Master of my fate.
Christ is the Captain of my soul.
Grace takes away the
I-am-at-the-center-of-the-universe-and-therefore-I-am-responsible-for-everything-that-goes-on-in-my-world
perspective,
Grace gives us the
not-by-my-might-but-by-Your-Spirit
kind of life. The kind of life we all need to live.
Were it not for grace, I would be a total wreck. But since grace abounds, I have reason to live. I have reason to hope. I have reason to change. Where sin abounds, grace abounds all the more.
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