“Grace found my heart where logic ends.” Hillsong United – Here Now (Madness)
I’ve always been someone so driven by logic I have trouble seeing common sense. I’ve often joked about that in myself. I’m great at logic and rule following. I look to find the clear “right” path and then follow it. You give me a rule? I will follow (and even enjoy following it) to near perfection. Routines? Love them. Laws? I obey without even thinking twice. This can be a great thing. It means I have an easier time getting things done, following good habits, achieving goals… you get the picture.
When it comes to our faith though, logic does not help that much. Rules and logic have a hard time moving us closer to God or His freedom in our lives. Wouldn’t life be so easy if the Bible was a huge book of what to do in every situation we ever encounter? There would be easy 1. 2. 3. steps for every single choice, dilemma, and crossroad so we know exactly what to do.
Instead we get a book filled with this mysterious history of a great God’s relationship with us since before the world began. A relationship story. A story of process, of deepening connection and expanding consciousness over centuries and generations. A love story.
As I look at Jesus’ life, the Bible and it’s progression, I can’t help but see how God has always been surprising people with where he shows up:
- Healing on the sabbath.
- Loving enemies.
- Going the extra mile.
- Forgiving the undeserving.
- Choosing the ordinary and not the religious “have-it-all-together-s”.
- Turing the other cheek.
- Loving the person caught in sin.
- Dying for the undeserving.
All of it! He de-bunked every single ideal the religious of the time thought up and expected him to follow without question. Their ideals kept them from seeing God, and he was physically with them!
So this has me thinking – Am I missing where God is at work right now because it doesn’t align with my frame work of right and wrong (aka my ideals, my expectations, my judgment, my understanding)?
Right. Wrong. Frameworks. They do help to an extent. They help us function so we are not constantly at a loss for how to behave and what to do next. But they have their limits.
This is hard to digest, yet I am starting to see the answer of “what is right and what is wrong?” is probably somewhere in the middle. It does not make sense, but God told us it wouldn’t.
I don’t think we are called to understand, but to further His story of grand love.
We are to ask God where He is, what He’s doing, and how can I get behind that. And just like He did all throughout the Bible, He may ask us to do something you think is crazy.
To this day, I am seeing God often works outside of logic, frameworks and understanding so we need to seek Him for direction. The less we understand, the more we need faith to follow Him. The more we need to connect. The more we are in relationship.
Are there things right now in your life that you want to press hard against because they don’t add up to you: loving someone who hurt you unjustly, loving others not living “rightly”, loving those who oppose you, loving yourself for not following own ideals?
These things are hard. These things hurt. The reality is, it is really hard for us to embrace what God is doing when it doesn’t match up with our ideal.
But God stands in the gap of where our logic ends and His grace begins and whispers “You can do this. Just love.”
In life it may never be easy to determine what to do next, where to go, what’s right and what’s wrong. That’s God’s job. We are not called to judge or figure out the future, but to love and trust God in the moment. Trust God is working in it all for good.
So maybe, what could make life a little easier is focusing on taking the next small loving step. The step may not make sense, but will it further His love?
Will you try to join me in this surrendering of our paradigms for a little more love, a little more faith, trusting God for the justice and working it out for His glory, laying down the stones we want to throw at everything outside of our ideal and instead whisper “I don’t get this. But neither do I condemn you.”
My hope is that little by little, small loving step by small loving step, I will begin to see where God is at work because I now know he doesn’t always work where I expect him to.
Extra Musings and Random Thoughts
This past weekend I got to visit one of my favorite people in Boston, MA where she’s been living. A new state for me! I loved the visit. Boston’s a great city – super clean and walkable with fun things to see and do. We also went to these beautiful small towns near by. The picture here is from Rockport, MA. The picture hardly does justice to how beautiful it was in person. God is awesome!
I continue to be grateful for how God provides connection and community in my life. Yes we need to reach out to make connections, but He always comes through with new friends, mentors and people to hash out life with. I’m grateful for you all! (You know who you are).
I have a gallery exhibit coming up! Super excited to have my artwork in downtown Lancaster at Flora’s for November. Please stop by to visit (and enjoy some of their amazing food)!
