It’s Grace

It’s that time of year again when fatigued leaves abandon their career of decking lofty trees with green and let go to dance in the street and scuttle down the sidewalks in front of rushing feet.

It’s that time of the year when faded flowers beseech the sky for one more day of light and color before falling into forgotten glory.

It’s that time of year again when fingers of wind grow strong and cold and clouds batter the sun.

It’s that time of the year when nature sings with a hoarse voice. The natural world is humbled, debased, and degraded as winter approaches to blanket and hide the landscape it sends into oblivion.

This world is temporal. Nothing humans can do will change the natural cycle of life that God created. “To everything there is a season, a time for every purpose under heaven.” Ecclesiastes 3:1

I met a friend today walking a dog that I hadn’t seen her with before. When we stopped to talk, the dog sat at her feet staring steadfastly into her face with a deep look of love. The dog’s previous owner had died. For weeks the dog had been left alone in an empty house with strangers popping in to give it food and water. Then my friend adopted the collie and gave it what it needed most—love. Grace. The eternal substance of life on earth and in heaven.

There was a time when I was a sexually abused child. There was a time when two abortions were forced on me to protect the identity of the abuser.

There was a time when I used profanity. There was a time when I was mean and ugly to my siblings.

There was a time when I drank alcohol. There was a time I hung out in beer halls, got drunk, and drove home.

There was a time when I could never have written even one book. I felt ugly, unwanted, stupid, and worthless. Then Jesus whispered the love song of grace into my heart and it began to beat again—for the first time. I was reborn as a new daughter in Christ.

Only grace can forgive. Only grace can write the language of love and acceptance that endures forever. Jesus’ love. Jesus’ grace.

“For love is as strong as death…Many waters cannot quench love, nor can the floods drown it.” Song of Solomon 8:6&7.

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Conversation Stopper

The Old Testament prophet Isaiah wrote about Jesus some 740 years before Jesus was born. Isaiah may have been martyred—sawn in two—during the reign of Manasseh for speaking truth. He condemned the wealthy for oppressing the poor; he condemned women who neglected their families in the quest of carnal pleasure; he condemned priests and prophets who became drunken men-pleasers instead of teaching and keeping God’s law.

Isaiah declared God’s displeasure with sin and endeavored to turn his generation away from disobedience to God. He paved a foundation of hope and promise for those who remained true to God by telling them about the birth of Jesus, Savior and Redeemer.

Speaking out against sin and injustice, Isaiah said, “Woe unto…” Yet after he had a vision of the Lord sitting on a throne, high and lifted up, Isaiah said of himself, “Woe is me, for I am undone! Because I am a man of unclean lips.” (Isaiah 6:5) Faced with God’s holiness, Isaiah realized that the same sinfulness he had prophesied against in others was found within himself.

That’s why I wrote gritty, real “Killer Conversations.” I’ve been criticized because the narrative of child abuse creating a serial killer is not a fairy tale—it’s painful and haunting. It’s the only book I’ve ever written that has received a one-star review. As Christians, we sometimes use what we perceive as our goodness as an excuse to criticize others. We use the fact that we don’t smoke, drink, curse, etc. as a battering ram against other believers. It’s a temptation to set ourselves up and put others down. We forget: “There by the grace of God go I.”