Day 6: Strength & Grace

STRENGTH & GRACE:
I was talking with my sister today, who has recently arrived here from Oregon to help and work with us in Mississippi, and she said something really interesting that struck me and made me think. She said, "it's amazing the way God speaks to you here. I mean every single time I do anything or talk about anything He affirms it or gives me scripture or words or something!"

It is so true of Mississippi. Ever since coming here I have known God in such a deeper and richer way... sometimes it is hard to know whether it is the heart or the place that has brought such change and communication with God. There is something to be said for the love and inclusion that you find here in Mississippi. Bay St. Louis is a unique and embracing community. But I know also that God has been in hot pursuit of my heart since my birth and I have only just realized and turned and chosen Him, so it feels like it must be a combination of both, eloquently orchestrated together in God's will and timing.

So we talked on for a little bit, in awe and wonder of our AMAZING and EVER vocal God and we started sharing stories about the different ways He speaks to us. Sometimes we don't even realize how incredibly amazing and cool something is until we sit down and talk to someone about it. Then it kind of hits us, like, OH YEAH! WOW! That is INCREDIBLE! And I realize how blessed and loved I am and I rack my brain trying to figure out how I can ever feel anything opposite. Why are we so fickle?

So I was telling her about my week. It began with STRENGTH and GRACE. How do two such words and concepts come together, you might wonder... well God is determined to show me. And every time I forget to seek Him about it or forget to pray for it, He refocuses my thoughts, right back to these two things... right back to HIS will for my present learning! I shared with Di my concept of strength and its challenges, she expressed compassionately the value of weakness. "True strength," she said, "is manifest in grace!" I pondered. "Sometimes, the greatest strength comes in allowing yourself to be weak. And when you are weak, you can administer grace. Which is what strength is."

The next day (and I mentioned this on Day 1 already), Father Sebastian said, "may God give us the grace to stay faithful during this Lenten season." And I thought... "grace?" isn't this gonna take strength to stick to our fasts and allow ourselves to really enter into repentance while we diligently and fearfully seek the Lord and His ways for us! But it is by Christ's strength, manifest in grace that we have any strength at all to remain faithful during Lent!

So I contemplated that night these two words that once seemed so ambiguous and separate from each other, trying to more deeply understand the impact of everything I was learning and hearing. The next day I got to talk with Jaron Manyama, who is as a brother to me and who always has such amazing insight into all things. We don't talk often enough so we talked about so many things, but the conversation started pulling toward the concept of strength and I was very poorly trying to articulate what I was trying to comprehend and all that I was learning. And Jaron, as he ALWAYS does, instantly had a scripture for me! Jaron said to me, "Paul talks about strength and weakness in 2 Corinthians 12, somewhere near the end of the chapter, check it out." (This is gonna blow your mind!) I looked it up and 2 Corinthians 12:9-10 reads:
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. THAT IS WHY, FOR CHRIST'S SAKE, I DELIGHT IN WEAKNESSES, IN INSULTS, IN HARDSHIPS, IN PERSECUTIONS, IN DIFFICULTIES. FOR WHEN I AM WEAK, THEN I AM STRONG.

Christ says, "my GRACE is sufficient for you!" Not His strength! And then He calls us to let go of our strength and allow ourselves to be weak; that His power is "PERFECT in weakness." It is when we allow our "strength" to be weakness, that Christ can administer His grace, which will bring us HIS strength!

AMAZING! When I am confused He speaks to me! When I am forgetful he reminds me!

My Discipline this week:
Psalm 46: 10 "Be still and KNOW that I AM GOD."

When we are constantly exerting our strength in moving and judging and striving to DO, we forget that when we allow ourselves the weakness of being still, we will KNOW WHO GOD IS! And that He can administer His grace to us.

My Bible verses for the first day of my discipline this week:
2 Corinthians: 7-10

HAHA! You did it again Papa! I'm gettin' it, I'm gettin' it!

Final Reflection: It was by grace that Jesus laid down all His own strength and power and gave us life eternal! His strength was that He was willing to be weak, that we might know grace!