Jesus came and turned the world topsy-turvy, preaching an upside-down Kingdom where the last are first and the meek inherit the Earth. Even during the time that Jesus’ sandals scuffed the sands of Samaria, it was counter-cultural. It may be even more so today.
We live in a me-first world.
Go for the gusto! Make it count! Get ahead! Be somebody! “Nice guys finish last,” we’re told which implies if we want to be first, we better not waste time on niceties.
Oh, we preach the words of Jesus about serving instead of being served, but do we live it?
I’ve been thinking about the upside-down Kingdom lately and it seems it is something that God is wanting to teach me because I’m seeing it everywhere.
I’ve been reading Ann Voskamp’s One Thousand Gifts. If you haven’t read it, put it on your Christmas list! I’ve been reading it for months! No, see, you don’t understand. When I have time to read, I can easily read a book in a day, but this is a book to savor. This is a book to digest. You have to ponder it, chew on it, wrestle with the words and your beliefs. Whether you agree with Ann or disagree (read the Amazon.com reviews) with her, there is plenty of food for thought. She writes beautifully. Her sentence structure isn’t English teacher perfection. Instead she paints word pictures of her life and her quest to write down 1,000 gifts–to see life through a different lense.
Everything is grace.
Everything?
Everything.
What appears to be the un-grace of God or others, is instead grace. Cancer? Yes. Loss of a job? Yes. Loss of a child? Yes.
If God is good and God gives good gifts and God gives all, all is grace.
My heart rails against it! I know He is good! I know He is all powerful, but there is an enemy of my soul who comes to steal and to destroy! Doesn’t this un-grace come from the Liar who asked, “Did God really say……?” in the Garden and ever after in a seductive whisper to steal us away from the God who gives all gifts and only asks obedience?
But if the tragedy causes me to run headlong into the arms of the Father, is that not grace?
I have heard many heated, passionate theological arguments about God testing us with trial vs the enemy plotting and planning and God allowing tragedy in our lives but answering that argument is not the purpose of this post.
Instead, I concentrate on Romans 8:28. My life verse. ”And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose.”
So if all things work together for good, and God is good, then whatever happens to me can be turned to good by a good God.
Ahhhh. Grace. Unmerited favor from a God who loves.
I believe it, but I still wrestle with giving thanks in all things–my humanity, my flesh rises up when things don’t go my way.
I love the Scripture that says (my paraphrase) that God gives us good gifts. Would a father whose son asks for bread, give him a stone? Not according to Scripture!
But I have a friend who used to say, “Sometimes God has given me gifts that are bread but the package they are wrapped in looks exactly like a stone!”
Yes! That’s it! Everything is grace!
I just finished a book today called Left Neglected by Lisa Genova. I was interested in the story of a woman who experienced a traumatic brain injury (TBI) because I have a friend who also has TBI. Though fiction, the condition of Left Neglect is real. After a car accident, the main character does not know that Left exists. Her brain takes over and fills in the blanks so that what she experiences on the right becomes all there is. She doesn’t know or see or feel anything Left including her own arm and leg. She goes from being a high-powered, life-in-the-fast-lane executive who prides herself on being smart and capable to being unable to dress herself.
And yet, she finds Grace though she doesn’t call it that. Given the chance to have her old life back, she creates a new one that includes love and family. Written through her eyes, we see the inner and outer struggle of a life out of control and Lisa brings us to the conclusion that life is so much more than grabbing the brass ring of what the world calls success.
My friend, Krysta is the same. Smart. Capable. Talented. Mangerial position when a freak accident left her with a traumatic brain injury that changed her life. And yet, because she has had to cling to faith, has had to cling to Jesus, she would not go back to her old life, given the chance.
Grace. An upside down Kingdom where even the worst can turn out to be the best because only He is God and He is only good.
Can you embrace His grace? It is my prayer that you would.
Blessings,
Kim
