| Dear
One,
Nita sat quietly on the front row of
the conference center. As
she waited for her introduction, she tried to calm herself down.
She didn’t like speaking in public.
Matter of fact, she would never have asked to be placed in this
situation. Why did she
agree to share her experience with these prospective patients anyway?
Ugh!
She tightly held her glasses in one
hand as she made her way toward the podium.
With the other hand, she gripped the podium and forced a quick
smile. Nita’s throat was dry and she felt nauseous.
As she began to speak, her voice shook and cracked.
Someone in the back asked her to speak up.
She acknowledged the request by trying to speak a bit louder.
She began to tell her story.
Yes. . .laser eye surgery had changed
her life dramatically. She
held up her old glasses and showed them how thick the lenses had been.
She began to smile as she described what it was like to open her
eyes the morning after surgery. Even then the change was unbelievable. Nita explained that though her vision was initially blurry,
she was able to see objects across the room that she would never have
been able to see without her glasses.
By early afternoon her vision had improved enough that she was
able to drive to her first post-surgery appointment!
Nita was feeling more relaxed as she
spoke. “Don’t expect to have perfect vision right away,” Nita
cautioned. She reminded the group that though the most amazing aspect of
the surgery was the initial change in vision, it would continue to
improve over the next six to seven months.
She giggled as she said, “I remember thinking that my vision
couldn’t get any better and then all of a sudden [she snapped her
fingers] I was aware that things had become even clearer than before.”
And
so it is with you and me...
“Now
to Him who is able to do exceeding abundantly beyond all that we ask or
think, according to the power that works within us.” (Ephesians 3:20)
Now that’s what I call amazing.
First of all, we are already complete in Christ Jesus – He has
given us everything up front! And if that isn’t enough to make a girl jump with joy, we
also have the power of God working in us to such a degree that it goes
beyond anything we could ever imagine!
“I
don’t know when it happened,” Carol proclaimed. “I just don’t find myself thinking about gossiping about
other people much anymore. And,
I don’t remember making it a goal or something I needed to stop
doing.” She sipped her
cup of tea slowly and then added another cube of sugar to her hot drink.
“I knew that I had a problem with gossiping. I really didn’t want to talk about other people but it just
seemed to always slip out.”
I
smiled at Carol. She was
one of my favorite people and I loved visiting with her.
But over the years I had learned to discuss things with her that
I didn’t mind other people knowing.
You see, Carol and I had a unique give-and-take relationship.
I gave her information and she took it…and more times than not,
she passed it along.
But
there was one other thing that Carol had taken up and passed along - the
gospel of the grace of God. Over
the past couple of years, I had watched her experience more of the
freedom that is hers in Christ. I
was excited for her. “Who would have guessed it,” she smiled.
“Something has been going on inside of me that I didn’t
start. Now that’s a
gospel worth telling others about!”
“For
it is God who is at work in you, both to will and to work for His good
pleasure.” (Philippians
2:13)
Isn’t
it wonderful to know that God is working in you and in me regardless of
our activating nods of approval? Yes,
indeed. And you know the
very best part? His
working, willing and powering in us goes much further than we ever would
have thought possible. And,
certainly deeper than we would ever think is necessary.
Now
you might be asking yourself what in the world is God working in us if
He’s already done everything on our behalf in His Son? Well, I believe that scripture tells us that He is dedicated,
determined, devoted to the business of our maturation.
Maturation in what, you may also ask?
Well, it’s the slow, slow process of revealing to you and to me
what is the depth, breadth, length and height of His completed work on
our behalf in His Son. (See
Ephesians 3:14-21)
Yes,
I said a slow process. I
know. There’s nothing fun
about slow – unless we’re talking about the time period between
birthdays. Unfortunately,
we live in a world fed by instant, immediate gratification so the idea
of something taking time to mature and become established isn’t
necessarily the quick fix that many are looking for (See Colossians
2:6-7). I think that’s
why so many folks check out the so-called “grace message”, conclude
that it doesn’t seem to work quick enough or provide the instant
relief they were looking for so they go on to something else.
Funny thing is – there isn’t anything else that will satisfy
like the gospel of the grace of God.
Absolutely nothing.
And that’s what Carol said to me as
we left the small cafe. “I
was really beginning to wonder about the gospel.
I wanted to see permanent changes in my behavior right away.”
She stopped for a moment as she dug through her purse looking for
her car keys. When she
found them, she shook them in the air and said, “And I was mad when it
didn’t seem to happen. I
was really disappointed for a while.”
But just like the “visibly”
enhanced Nita, Carol was beginning to see more clearly, too.
“You know what? That
disappointment was evidence to me that I had been looking at the gospel
as a ‘better’ method for living life.”
She shook her head as she put the key into the door lock of her
car. “But He is so
faithful. I just know that
He is willing and working in me – whether I see or feel anything or I
don’t feel or see anything.”
I couldn’t have been more pleased for
her. I reached around the
car door and gave her a hug before she sat down inside her car.
And then I had to ask, “Tell me how you’re so sure that
He’s working in you!” She
looked up at me with a smile on her face and beamed, “You’re so
funny. Because the word of
God says so! And, I guess
because while we were having lunch it didn’t even occur to me to tell
you about Janis’ sister-in-law’s new boyfriend . . .oops!”
For
I am confident of this very thing, that He who began a good work in you
will perfect it until the day of Christ Jesus.
(Philippians 1:6)
I love you,
Marcy
marcy@gospelfortoday.org |
